The Return
by BlackSandHeart
Summary: He's back. And he wants revenge. Shadow stopped him once but doesn't think he can do it again... especially with his new army. And this time... he's after Shadow's only family left. OCs in story along with possible pairings! Please R&R!
1. Nightmares and Realities

**Hello there, reader!**

**Truthfully… I am quite nervous about this story. This was an idea I had about a year ago… and it might turn out horribly wrong. If the story seems **_**too**_** biased around the character Katherine (like it seems to be that I talk about nothing but her), let me know. If you don't like the story idea, then please tell me that it needs more work in the nicest way possible.**

**Did not understand what I just said? Then go to my profile and read the other stories (start with Dimension Jumpers or Katherine's Tale)!**

**Okay, enough babbling here we go… *takes a deep breath***

**DISCLAIMER= I own nothing that belongs to SEGA. At this current moment, all that I own is the other Dimension, and the famous Dimension Jumpers!**

CHAPTER ONE= NIGHTMARES AND REALITIES

"_Are you okay?"_

"_Of course not! She lost her memory! She doesn't even recognize who any of us are…"_

"_Unknown substances released within a body that has been transformed into the ways of light or darkness can lead to death within three days to the victim if not taken care of immediately…"_

"_Do I know you?"_

"_She stole my shoes?!"_

"_You used me!" _

"_It's almost like she owns the city…"_

"_Tell my father that I deny his request. I'll rule this world without his help."_

_Then… there was the sound of someone screaming in pain and the wailing sound of police sirens. Then, the screaming slowly transformed into horrible, evil laughter._

"_NO!"_ Xerius cried telepathically. He sat up in his bed, his heart pounding like a mallet smacking against a metal surface and his brow covered in sweat. He looked around frantically, flicking his wrists and extracting his long claws from his knuckles. When he saw he was alone in his dark room, he took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down and flicked his wrists again, removing the claws back into his knuckles once again.

Xerius turned around in his bed and put his hands over his ears, staring at the ground. The nightmare had come back… it was the same one he had every night and not only did he have it once a night, he had it at least three times every night.

And his dreams normally became the future.

Xerius stood and grabbed a white shirt on his dresser, pulling it over his head and straightened out the basketball shorts he had been wearing. He twitched his catlike ears and when he heard nothing and he took a deep breath; good he hadn't waked anyone up this time.

The silent warrior opened the sliding door to the back part of his dark room and walked out onto the balcony. One of the two moons shone down onto him as he stared silently up at one of the large, round objects, his brown eyes glowing in the reflection of the blue moon as he crossed his arms on the balcony's railing.

All was silent in this dimension, Xerius' home dimension. This building wasn't too far away from Light Givers' square: the main square and meeting area for the Light Givers. He was at a large, five room apartment and he shared the place with Xsus, Ria, Chase, and Jason.

Xerius took a shaky breath, trying to calm his whirling mind. He glanced to the left and right at another two doors that led to the balcony. The door on the left led to Ria's room and the door on the left led to Xsus' but he knew he couldn't talk to Xsus at this hour, besides, he always froze up the door leading to the room after Chase told him stories about a Boogie Man sneaking into your room through balconies.

An evil laugh forced Xerius to flinch again as he looked back up at the sky. _It was just a dream, it was just a dream…_ Xerius repeated to himself but he could still hear the screams of pain ending in an evil laughter.

In all of his nightmares that he had so far… Katherine had ended being evil in every one.

-XXXXXXXX-

_UNKNOWN LOCATION=_

"Hmm… so this is the girl?" A dark voice said in the shadows. His three red eyes glowed in the darkness as he looked towards another figure, also in the shadows, who seemed to be trembling slightly. Before him in a glowing white light it showed a figure of someone with long ears riding down the highway on a motorbike.

"Y-yes my l-lord." The other person stuttered, obviously terrified of the owner of the red eyes.

There was a moment of silence and the red eyed owner chuckled. "Such an innocent victim… for she doesn't even have the blood of our kind."

"What d-do you wish to do my l-lord?"

"Send one of the Dark Birds after her. They will know what to do. Either she will die or join us." The red eyes glittered darkly and then disappeared as the owner of the stuttering voice bowed and left the room, feeling his heart pounding.

-XXXXXXXX-

_TEN MILES OUTSIDE OF CENTRAL CITY=_

Katherine laughed happily as she used her motorbike, sliding in and out of the lanes, between large trucks and other vehicles. Thanks to her brother, Shadow the hedgehog, she had managed to talk G.U.N. into giving her a motorbike of her own in return of working in the agency now.

The Dimension Jumper moved through the traffic of the evening rush hour. The sun was starting to set and Katherine looked through the black helmet Tails made especially for her, with two slits at the top so her long ears could hang out of the helmet.

Katherine slid in between traffic, enjoying the thrill of going at fast speeds without wasting any of her energy. She wanted to take this machine back to her dimension but Zap refused it, saying something about the environment and gasoline not mixing well.

Another few spins through the lanes and Katherine's ears perked up when she heard a faint beeping sound. She looked at her watch and sighed when she saw it flashing red, a message from the commander. What did that grumpy old flea bag want _this_ time?

The Dimension Jumper debated about whether or not to press the button. She knew if she didn't press it, she would have to suffer another hour of lecturing from the Commander about not answering calls. If she did answer, she would have to go on another mission- probably another boring one. Last time he asked for one she had to stop a man speeding on the highway… yay.

Katherine sighed. She probably should answer it. As her hand reached out for the watch a sudden exploding sound came out behind her and Katherine glanced back and watched, her eyes widening when she saw a truck carrying gasoline flipping into the air before exploding, sending balls of fire and chunks of metal down onto the highway.

Katherine swerved, avoiding falling debris before speeding even faster, her eyes narrowing and her heart started pounding. She glanced back and her eyes widened when she saw a deranged bat kind of monster fly out of the fire and shoot _right at her_. It had black eyes that burned like coals and faded fur that was the color of black and red.

Katherine switched the gears and now flew down the highway, swerving and avoiding cars while the bat thing flew right through them with its large, pointed wings. Katherine glanced back and took a sharp right, getting off the exit and glancing back to see the monster bat flying after her.

"Oh you have _got_ to be kidding!" Katherine cursed as she swerved onto a road that led her up the side mountain not too far away, the bike's engine growing hot from the strain she put on it. Katherine pulled out her sword and glanced back, seeing the bat was gaining.

"What the heck is that thing?" Katherine muttered to herself and she made the engine fly even faster. She glanced one more time backwards and frowned when she saw it wasn't there anymore. She looked around frantically. Where did it go?!

Suddenly, searing hot pain shot up Katherine's arm, the one that held her sword, and Katherine cried out, falling off the bike and rolling on the ground, getting plenty of other burns, bruises, and scratches to complain about for tomorrow. The bike flew into the air and then crashed sliding away on its side, away from Katherine. The Dimension Jumper growled as she pushed herself to her feet and put a hand on her still burning arm. She investigated the wound and winced at the sight of it.

A long, three inch gash was glowing scarlet but also had a darker color in the mixture. She tried to grab onto her sword but her arm was throbbing with so much pain she could barely manage to get her fingers to wrap around the handle.

A screeching sound was heard behind her and Katherine glanced back with a yelp as she saw the bat flying towards her at full speed.

Katherine picked up her sword with her left hand as her heart beat in her throat. She threw her sword at the monster and the sword went right through the thing before dropping to the ground with a clang. As soon as the sword went through it, the monster exploded into dark liquid that fell on top of Katherine with a sickening splat.

As soon as the black liquid touched her wounded arm, Katherine screamed in pain and bit her tongue hard enough to taste blood as her knuckles turned white from gripping her arm so hard. Tears streamed down her face as she struggled to her feet, grabbed her sword, and stumbled towards the overturned motorbike.

She had to get back and report her findings to the others. They needed to know about this… and she needed someone to heal her wound. Katherine somehow managed to pull the bike up with tears of pain streaming down her face. She spat out a mouthful of blood as she climbed onto the bike and with her left arm, somehow managed to get the bike to start working and drove away from the remaining black liquid from her battle.

**There you go… hope you liked it. Let me know if this is turning out okay or not. Thanks! Even a one word review would be just as nice (yeah raeweis, I know what you're thinking…).**


	2. Unknown Injury

**Well look at that. You made it to chapter two… I didn't think anyone would like the story at least this much.**

***hands Windy a twenty***

**Anyways, before I thank the reviewers there's two points I like to make that some people mentioned in the reviews: 1. This story is going to be dark… and chapter one so far has been the bloodiest so don't expect any more bloody parts to come in anytime soon.  
2. At the beginning of the last chapter when it went to the unknown location and so on, that was all in the present. The only future parts are the words in italic at the beginning part, or better known as, Xerius' dream.**

**Glad that's out of the way. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, etc., then please review. Anyways, thanks for reviewing: Lord Kelvin, Strife the Dark 152, BlackStormNomad, UnknownFollower, raeweis, Chaosthehedgehog, and Amicus.**

**Lord Kelvin= Regardless of what you said I posted this up anyways so I can see if others agree if this story is "doomed" like you say it is. Thanks for the review.**

**Strife the Dark 152= Huh, manga huh? What's it called? Anyways, yeah this story is going to have a dark hue to it… not sure if that's a good idea or not haha.  
Flame "Wait… you've met him before?!"**

**BlackStormNomad= Yay! You're the first reviewer, TNP! Anyways, yeah… Katherine's in trouble but only time will tell what's going to happen… Thanks for the review!**

**UnknownFollower= Sorry to confuse you friend, hope the message above cleared it up a bit. Anyways, onto your question: actually… yes. Yes he did. The Day of the Dead brought him back to life along with his army but they were in space, making them not available in the story. Does that clear it up? I hope so! It'll be explained later on in the story.**

**Raeweis= Glad your liking the story! :D it means a lot to me, really. Anyways, why were you thinking about Peanut Butter while Katherine was riding on a motorbike? Lol.**

**Chaosthehedgehog= Go ahead, Chaos. You can jump into the contest!  
Katherine and Xerius *staring contest***

**Amicus= Intense… yeah… do you like it so far my Latin friend?**

**DISCLAIMER= I don't own anything that belongs to SEGA. All that I currently own is the Dimension Jumpers, the hedgehog version of the bad guy, and the bird Ferrius.**

CHAPTER TWO= UNKNOWN INJURY

OUTSIDE G.U.N. HQs=

Katherine moved the bike down the rarely used road. Her right arm hung uselessly by her side and the cool wind was slowly numbing it. Her blue eyes narrowed as she heard the sudden sound of gunfire. For some reason, it brought back the painful memory…

She shook the thought away. Maria was alive again, she couldn't dwell on the past. She promised her she wouldn't.

She took a sharp turn onto a dirt road past a sign that read: "G.U.N. HQ- 0.4 miles. Authorized access only." Katherine ignored the sign and looked at the forest all around her, this place was supposed to hide G.U.N. from evil people like Doctor Eggman and Sierra- from her dimension. If that was the case, then what was with the sound of gunfire…?

Another sharp turn, kicking up dust and Katherine pulled the bike to a stop in front of an asphalt covered parking lot, but was surprised to find all the cars in the lot were now on fire, turned over, or just scrap metal now. She narrowed her eyes as she stumbled off the bike before grabbing her injured arm tightly as the pain came back.

A chain link fence stood at the end of the parking lot, blocking entrance into G.U.N. without permission but the fence looked like a big battering ram had ran through it. Katherine walked through the fence, her long ears twitching ever so slightly, listening for the sound of a survivor.

A cry of pain. Katherine glanced over and saw a half dead G.U.N. officer lying in the remains of the fence. Katherine stumbled up to him and bent down next to him. "Hey, hey! Stay with me! Are you okay? What happened?"

The G.U.N. officer opened his eyes slowly, a dead brown color, it looked like someone had sucked the life out of them. He looked at Katherine with the saddest look ever. He wore the camouflage color clothes along with a dented helmet that looked like it belonged in WWII in the human era in Katherine's dimension.

"Agent Kath…erine…" The G.U.N. agent gasped. "You're… finally here…"

"What happened here, solider?" Katherine asked. This brought back painful memories too. Windy dying… Maria dying… wait, why was she thinking about something like that now? She had more important things to dwell on. Maybe her wound was affecting her mind.

"They came… so many of them…" The G.U.N. agent whispered. "They went right through the fence and were _eating_ my fellow men… they left me here to die but went farther into… G.U.N. headquarters…"

"Who came? Who?!" Katherine demanded.

The G.U.N. agent sighed heavily and Katherine realized she wasn't going to get anymore answers out of him. She put a hand on his bloody chest. "Stay still… I'll come get help for you."

The Dimension Jumper stood and put a hand on her arm again before stumbling through the fallen fence and farther down the road. It was about the mile down the road until G.U.N. HQ could come into sight in between the trees.

As soon as she went past the fence she started running, trying to ignore the throbbing pain in her arm. _Drat… of all days to get hurt…_ she thought to herself angrily. _Who could've done this? Eggman? Sierra? No, not Sierra. Sierra hardly works as a team player. It must be Eggman… or the owner of those bat things. But that could've been Eggman too…_

After a few minutes of running, she heard a familiar call. "CHAOS CONTRIOL!" Then the sound of gunfire.

"Oh great, SHADOW!" Katherine yelled as she started running even faster. After a few more feet, she could see an opening in the trees and slid to a stop as she came out of the covering of the trees to a horrifying sight.

Monsters. There had to be at least hundreds of them. All of them different shapes and sizes and were attacking G.U.N. agents. Katherine bit her lip and pulled out her sword that she had struggled to put away while driving on the motorbike.

Katherine ran forward, stumbled through the remains of two more knocked over chain link fences, and into battle. She stopped in front of one of the monsters, who was about the size of a bus and seemed to be glowing with power. It lifted its muscled arms and slammed them into the ground, making the ground tremble and almost throwing her off balance. It had a small head compared to its beefy body and when it opened its mouth, it showed jagged fangs and teeth.

"By the Light Givers…!" Katherine gasped as the monster turned to her, beady black eyes blazing. Katherine weakly lifted her sword with her injured arm and narrowed her eyes as the monster growled at her… but didn't attack.

The two stared each other down until Katherine switched her sword into her left hand, jumped into the air and sliced the monster in half where it exploded into black liquid, spraying her in the face but barely missing her injured arm.

Katherine landed on the ground and looked back at the black liquid from the monster and found herself panting heavily. She looked around the battlefield of soldiers and monsters, seeing some looking like the bat that attacked her.

The girl took another step forward when a sudden wave of dizziness hit her, making her feel tired and sick all at once. Katherine's eyes rolled to the back of her head and she fell to the ground, passing out cold.

Then, appearing out of thin air next to her, a figure appeared. It was a black hedgehog with red streaks on his three quills, one of which pulled all the way down to the tip of the center one of his three eyes. His arms, legs, tail, and spikes had the same red streak in them. He wore black boots with metal tied in multiple rounds around it as he picked up the unconscious girl and tossed her over his shoulder. A red aura seemed to surround him as he lifted his eyes and saw another hedgehog charging towards him with a robot and bat at his side.

"PUT. HER. DOWN!" Shadow the hedgehog roared as he lifted a fist to punch the enemy hedgehog but the hedgehog lifted a hand, stopping Shadow's blow. The Ultimate Life Form stared at the black glove that blocked his fist and looked into the hedgehog's three red eyes.

The hedgehog smirked and with hardly any energy, lifted Shadow off his feet and flung him at E-123 Omega and both went down with a crash. Rouge the bat continued to charge forward, jumped into the air and tried doing a Tornado Kick against the monster but was blocked as the hedgehog grabbed her boot, stopping her. He threw her at Shadow as the hedgehog jumped to his feet and both of them fell on top of the robot.

The red and black hedgehog turned and walked away with Katherine hanging over his shoulder then vanished into thin air as Shadow jumped to his feet one more time with a horrified look on his face. "KATHERINE!" He yelled in horror. He ran to the spot he last saw the hedgehog and looked around frantically.

Rouge pushed herself to her feet with a groan. "W-who was that guy?" She muttered as she got off of Omega.

"NAME OF CREATURE: UNKNOWN. SPECIES: HEDGEHOG." Omega stated as he pushed himself to his robotic feet.

Shadow growled and lifted a fist angrily. "Where did he take her? Where did he take my sister?!"

"Shadow! Look!" Rouge gasped and Shadow glanced back in surprise when he saw a small puddle of blood sitting next to a glowing white emerald, looking similar to the Chaos Emeralds but it had an unknown black mass in the center of it.

Shadow ran up to the emerald and picked it up, feeling his heart stop when he realized it was his sister's Soul Emerald; the very thing that kept Katherine alive in this dimension as well as the other Dimension Jumpers.

The black hedgehog looked at the blood next to the emerald and dipped his fingers into it before lifting it up to his eyes with a frown. His crimson red eyes flashed with recognition and he grinded his teeth, growling deep in his throat because this wasn't the blood that normally ran in his sister's veins.

This was blood from the Black Arms race.

The same blood that ran through his veins.

Shadow turned to Rouge with a dark, angered, and hurt look in his eyes. "Call Windy." He said without another word. Rouge nodded and ran off, leaving the robot and the hedgehog investigating the blood.

-XXXXXXXX-

Windy, with her arms crossed and eyes closed, leaned back in the black jet plane that was hurrying back to base for backup. The girl opened her forest green eyes and looked around at the fellow G.U.N. agents sitting around her in their leather seats, buckled up. All of them were human, except a Mobian hawk that went by the name Ferrius sitting next to her, he was a bright blue bird with golden eyes that seemed to shine their way through the universe.

Ferrius suddenly looked at Windy's watch and the Dimension Jumper glanced down. She pressed a button on the side of the watch and lifted a hand up to her catlike ear, pressing on the small button on the communicator that wrapped around her right ear. "What's up?" She asked seriously.

Ferrius strained to hear a sound on the communicator but heard nothing.

"She _what_?!" Windy demanded loudly, causing everyone on the airplane to look at her. Even the small door that led to the cabin opened up and the human co-pilot looked out to see what all the commotion was about.

Windy became quiet and grinded her teeth together angrily. With the hand that wasn't pushing down on the button, she clenched it into a tight fist. "How did it happen?" Windy asked darkly after a pause.

Ferrius looked up at the black ceiling as Windy continued to get even more irritated at something next to him.

"Alright… understood. I'll be there as soon as I can, thanks, Rouge." Windy let go of the button and unbuckled her seatbelts, standing up and scaring everyone on the plane.

"Windy! Sit down!" Ferrius scolded her.

"I have to get the others. The other Dimension Jumpers. We have a serious problem on our hands." Windy growled at him. "So don't bother stopping me Ferrius."

Ferrius sighed. _Here she goes again. _He thought to himself as Windy stood in the middle of the cabin. "See you around." Ferrius gave her a wave.

Windy nodded to him and then vanished, teleporting away from the plane and to who knows where.

-XXXXXXXX-

"Secret mission, huh?" Jason, the Dimension Jumper and was famously known as a pyrokenisis with Blaze the Cat, said as he went down the glass elevator outside of Light Giver's square in his home dimension. Chase, known for being the fastest being alive in their dimension, stood across from him and Ria, a girl with the gift of lightning and his twin sister, stood next to him.

"Yeah," Chase shrugged. "Xerius went on a secret mission sent by Zap himself. None of us know where he went except Xsus and we're not going to get a thing out of that boy anytime soon."

Ria frowned, looking thoughtful as the elevator continued down. "Maybe he went back to the other dimension, you know, to keep an eye out for Sierra. We haven't heard or seen her since the incident last time."

"Last time… where Sonic claimed we were all cowboys?" Jason said with a grin on his face.

All three laughed at the thought and then the three glanced out the elevator's glass to watch the large, marble fountain as they continued their decent from the top floor. People were moving here to there, shopping, or just hanging out. Stores lined the edges of the round, cobblestone street with different items and food hanging from the sides of their stores. It was just another, typical, peaceful day in their home dimension.

The elevator let out a soft ding and the doors opened up. Chase laughed as he walked out. "I'm so glad Zap removed the cheesy elevator music from inside the elevator."

Jason cracked a grin, flicking his long pointed tail. "That _was_ getting annoying."

Ria suddenly stopped and the boys behind her stopped next to her. "That looks like trouble." Chase said dryly as they saw Zap marching towards them.

As the wielder of lightning moved through the crowd, everyone kept a respectful ten feet distance away from him until he stopped before the three of them. His dark blue eyes flashed like lightning as he looked at them, the zigzag scar running though the left side of his face was becoming painfully obvious. "We're going to the other dimension."

"What for?" Ria asked.

Zap tossed her a piece of paper and then marched towards the door. "I'm going to hunt down Xsus and Savanna. Meet me there."

Ria frowned at the letter.

"What does it say?" Jason asked, peaking over her shoulder to read the words on it while Chase glanced over her other shoulder.

"Three words, and it looks like it's from Windy." Ria said with a frown. "_'Katherine's in trouble'_."

**Alright, thanks for reading the next chapter! Please leave a review and let me know your thoughts/opinions/ideas so this story can become better for your enjoyment!**

**See you when the next chapter comes by and light be with you 'till we meet again!**

**-BlackSandHeart**

**Quote for the Story (pssh, why not?): "Does my haughtiness offend you?/ Don't you take it awful hard/ 'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines/ Diggin' in my own back yard." –Still I Rise, by Maya Angelou**


	3. The Truth

**Hey readers! Welcome to chapter three of the story, glad you made it this far and please keep on reading!**

**Anyways, thanks to the following people who reviewed and because they lifted up my spirits, each get a cookie!: UnknownFollower, Strife the Dark 152, Chaosthehedgehog, raeweis, BlackStormNomad, and Amicus!**

**Xsus *pulls out bag of cookies with a grin* "Found them!"**

**UnknownFollower= Xsus… he could destroy the world accidentally-lol. I'd tell you who this "mystery hedgehog" is but if I do it'll ruin the story! Anyways, Savanna. She's the girl that appeared at the end of Day of the Dead- one of the three that was brought back to life and one of Windy's and Katherine's best friends. She was also one of the girls that stayed behind to protect Ocean Rider in Shadows Gathering.**

**Strife the Dark 152 (One of these days I'm going to just write Strife on here… *sighs*)= Comedy, of course! Xsus pops up in this chapter so I think the dark element is going to steadily get lighter. He gets on a sugar rush in the next couple of chapters so that should help out the mood a bit. And yeah… you sort of sounded like a poet… not a bad thing though.  
Flame "Psh, who **_**would**_** be friends with this guy? Besides the people with no life, Strife."**

**Chaos= Oh, your grandparents died? I'm sorry… :( and so let me guess, did you play another four hours of Sonic Unleashed today lol? Anyways, I want to take one of those 'who are you most like?' tests, I haven't done it yet so it should be funny when I do it… anyways, about yourself, I'm actually one of the shortest people although I'm like 5 foot 4 (uh… don't know how tall that'd be in your metric scale and I don't want to do the math haha…) I guess I just have tall friends. I risk my neck to keep my friends safe from harm too- protective streak I suppose and I enjoy using my smart mouth to shoot people down... not a bright idea sometimes, I'm just as bad as Xerius and Flame at times but I got a bit of Xsus in me too to make up for it... Ehh… anyways, now **_**I'm**_** rambling on lol.  
Shadow "Heh…"  
? Hedgehog "Wait until I catch up to you Shadow, then you're days will be over."  
Katherine *shrugs* "At least I'm still in the competition. And Chaos! You really do care!"  
Shadow "Katherine?! What are you doing here? Are you okay? Are you safe?!"  
Katherine *rolls her eyes* "Author's notes, Shadow. Duh."**

**Raeweis= I think we're all starting to hope for that lol. Anyways, glad your liking the story and thanks for the review, my Canadian/Hockey/Canucks fan friend!**

**BlackStormNomad= TNP! Lol, I suppose from that review your liking the story! Anyways thanks for the review!**

**Amicus= *smiles* Thanks for your words, Amicus. A review like that bad one can really make you start questioning ones abilities, a true friend you are for lifting my spirits! And don't worry about the Canon Characters I'll always add them in here (or else this wouldn't be a "FanFiction" now would it…? Haha :)) So, you can get a clear picture of what's going on? YES! That's always a good thing. And what's your guess on who mystery hedgehog is? Wait, no, don't say anything if any snoopy people are checking out the reviews to see what you think lol.  
Now to save Katherine…! And thanks for the review!**

**Disclaimer= All that this author currently owns is NOT Sonic the hedgehog and Co. and the world around the blue blur. The author just owns everything else.**

**Now, ONWARD!**

CHAPTER THREE=THE TRUTH

By now the battle was over at G.U.N. HQ as Shadow the hedgehog paced nervously back and forth, his feet splashing through the black liquid that remained of the monsters. He wished he knew who took his sister at least… or even better… knew where she was. He felt his heart pounding nervously and the thought of him destroying the one who took her made his hands shake eagerly.

"Shadow, maybe you should sit down." Rouge the bat said as she stood next to E-123 Omega and the two watched the antsy hedgehog pace back and forth. "I'm sure the Dimension Jumpers will come soon."

Shadow said nothing as he continued to pace, his left hand wrapped around Katherine's Soul Emerald, as if he was protecting it from an unknown force.

"I also called Sonic to come and help… I'm sure he'll be helpful to have in this situation too." Rouge said slowly after a moment of silence.

Shadow froze and glared at Rouge. "I do not need Faker to help out. We can handle this by ourselves!"

"Then why are the Dimension Jumpers coming?" Rouge teased.

Shadow growled and went back to pacing.

Omega turned his attention to the sky. "LARGE POWER SOURCES ARE COMING THIS WAY."

Shadow stopped once again and looked at Omega while Rouge put a hand on her hip. "How many?" She asked.

"STARTING SCAN…" Omega became quiet for a moment and Shadow started pacing again, his mind whirling while Rouge looked at Omega hopefully. "SCAN COMPLETE. THERE ARE MANY POWER SOURCES HEADING TOWARDS US. OVER TEN."

Shadow cursed and continued pacing as the hum of an engine plan echoed in the air. Rouge and Omega looked to the skies where they saw the X-Tornado touchdown on the asphalt that surrounded G.U.N. headquarters. Off of the wing of the plane, Sonic the hedgehog jumped off of it and walked up to Team Dark while Tails Prower, Amy Rose, Cosmo, Cream the rabbit, and Maria Robotnik jumped off of it.

"Hey Shadow, I hear that…" Sonic started to say but the black hedgehog ran past him to help Maria get off the plane. He started talking to her as soon as her feet touched the ground, looking nervous and Maria soon had a worried look on her face.

Sonic watched the scene and frowned. "Hmm… that's weird. No insult? No comment? Nothing?"

"He's worried about his sister." Rouge said to him and Sonic glanced at her.

"I know, I know but still." Sonic shrugged.

Amy frowned as she finally caught up to the group with the others. "So what's this I keep hearing about? Katherine got kidnapped by some weird hedgehog?"

"That's right," Rouge nodded. "He just appeared and took her when Katherine passed out cold."

Omega made a whirling sound. "KATHERINE'S POWER LEVEL WAS LOWER THEN NORMAL. ONLY CONCLUSION COULD BE SHE HAD GOTTEN HURT ALREADY. POSSIBLY BY THE BLACK AND RED HEDGEHOG."

"Black and red hedgehog?" Sonic laughed. "You sure it wasn't Shadow from the future?"

"POSITIVE. THEIR ENERGY SIGNATURES WERE DIFFERENT."

Tails frowned, putting a hand on his chin. "Why would someone try to kidnap Katherine? Is there something she did wrong?"

"Doubt it," A new voice said from behind. "If she's done anything wrong I'd be the first… or second if Shadow's there… to know."

Everyone looked back to see a dark grey cat walking towards them with her arms crossed and green eyes narrowed. Sonic grinned. "Hey, Windy."

Windy ignored him and lifted a hand up as she continued talking. "The only thing that could've happened was that Katherine was ambushed on her way over here by one of these 'monsters' I keep hearing about."

By now, Shadow and Maria had walked up to join in the conversation. Shadow shook his head. "There was some blood over by where Katherine was lying and it belonged to the Black Arms…"

"The Black Arms?" Amy shuddered. "I didn't like them at all…"

"Black Arms?" Windy raised an eyebrow. "Am I missing something?"

"The Black Arms are an alien race…" Maria said quietly. "They're a fighting race and live to have war and blood. They eat humans and Mobians and their ruler is a monster named Black Doom. We used Black Doom's DNA to create Shadow the hedgehog…"

"I knew the name sounded familiar…" Windy muttered to herself. She spoke up after a moment. "So, since there was blood over by where Katherine was lying, do you think she got attacked by one of these 'Black Arms' idiots?"

Tails shook his head. "I built a machine awhile ago that would warn me if the Black Arms were coming in our direction or not. It hasn't gone off since the last time they've came when Shadow defeated them."

Shadow nodded slowly. "Besides, I'd be their first victim… because I was the one that defeated them. They're well known for wanting revenge."

Windy scowled. "Then who the heck is the cause of this?"

Tails frowned, looking a bit worried. "I don't know…"

"So no one knows?"

Everyone shook their heads no (except Omega).

Windy growled and slammed her fist into the palm of her hand, the same move someone would do to use as rock in the game: Rock, Paper, Scissors. She glared at everyone. "We have to find the cause of who did this and… hang on."

Omega looked to the sky. "THE REMAINING LIFE FORMS THAT REMAIN A THREAT TO US ARE ALMOST HERE."

Then, dropping down from the sky came Ria, Jason, and Chase. The three of them had used the energy they had so they could fly over here as fast as they could from the forest where the dimension machine Zap built could take them here.

Jason smiled. "Hey guys, what'd we miss?"

"Wow things look bleak here." Chase muttered.

Suddenly, appearing next to Ria without much of a sound, came Zap with his arms crossed and the look on his face was annoyed. Appearing next to him was a thrilled Xsus who was giggling like he just told Zap a joke… and laughed at it, which was probably the case. Savanna stood next to Zap with her arms crossed a worried look on her face.

"Here," Zap grumbled as Xsus' eyes lit up.

"Hi Sonic! Hi people! Hi Cream!" Xsus smiled and waved as Cream ran up to him with Cheese the chao floating beside her as she gave Xsus a tight hug.

"Xsus! I haven't seen you since yesterday!" Cream said joyfully.

"I know!" Xsus grinned. "It's been _forever_!"

Chase face palmed while the others gathered into the large circle. Windy quickly explained the situation of what happened to Katherine to all of them and when she was done another uncomfortable silence settled down on the group.

"How are we going to find Katherine?" Xsus asked sadly.

"We'll find her, don't worry." Ria reassured him patting the top of his golden head.

Savanna bit her lip. "A red and black hedgehog, huh? Well… maybe if we split up forces and ask around we can get some answers. I'm sure _somebody _has seen him before."

"Good idea, Savanna," Sonic gave her a thumbs up and turned to everyone. "How about we get into separate groups and look around?"

"I'm going to check Angel Island," Shadow growled.

"I'll come with you." Sonic offered and Shadow didn't even say anything or give him a glare. The black hedgehog just nodded his head slowly.

Zap and Windy looked at each other then shrugged. "We'll check out our home dimension, just in case." Zap said seriously.

"I'll come with you!" Maria offered.

"Maria…" Zap said slowly, looking at her. "You know if you come to our dimension you might never look the same again…? The light magic might be enough to transform your body into a different shape entirely."

"If it means that then it's a risk worthwhile taking Katherine." Maria said boldly.

"You can join another team…" Zap started to say but Maria shook her head.

"No. I'm coming with you. Besides, I want to see what Katherine's home world is like." Maria said seriously.

Windy sighed in defeat. "Alright, you can come."

"Be careful…" Shadow said to her and Maria nodded her head.

"I will."

"I want to come too." Rouge said, taking a step forward.

"And so do I." Savanna added as she took a quick glance at Rouge.

Windy gave them a funny look and shrugged. "Sure… we're going to need all the help we can get. Our dimension's a whole other universe."

"I'll lead the others around here and ask some civilians in Central City. If the two went on foot I doubt they got too far." Jason said, lifting a hand.

"I'll come with you!" Amy said with a smile while Chase and Ria nodded their heads in agreement.

"Us too!" Xsus called, lifting a hand with Cream and Cheese.

Tails looked thoughtful. "I bet I can go back to my lab and make a machine so I can pinpoint Katherine's energy signature."

"I will come with you." Cosmo said and Tails smiled at her.

"I WILL HELP TOO." Omega stated.

Tails nodded at the robot and pulled communicators out of his tails and started handing them to everyone. "Here, take these so we can keep in contact with each other and tell each other our findings."

Everyone strapped the communicators to their wrists and Tails silently put the extra communicator that belonged to Katherine back in his tails before looking at the others again. Shadow watched him do this and his eyes clouded for a moment until Maria put a hand on his head, slowly stroking his fur.

"It's okay, Shadow." Maria said to him quietly. "We'll find her."

Shadow nodded and Sonic lifted a hand, showing a thumbs up to Shadow and his trademark grin. "Race you to Angel Island, Shadow."

Shadow's eyes narrowed. "You know you'll lose, Faker."

Sonic grinned, this was the Shadow that he'd been missing. "Well then you're going to have to catch up first!" With that, the blue blur spun around and shot off, into the trees and out of sight.

Shadow turned to Maria and looked at her sadly. "Stay safe."

"I will." Maria promised and bent down to give him a hug. "You stay safe too, Shadow."

Shadow nodded and they gave each other a quick hug until Shadow spun around and shot off after Sonic the hedgehog.

There was a long moment of silence once he was gone. They looked at each other with frowns on their faces and then went their separate ways wishing each other good luck. Tails, Cosmo, and Omega went back to the X-Tornado while Jason, Ria, Chase, Xsus, Cream, and Amy started running towards Central City. Zap, Windy, Rouge, Savanna, and Maria gathered in a tight circle and teleported away. Then, everyone was gone and left G.U.N. HQ as vacant as ever with black liquid scattered on the ground.

**There you go! I hope you enjoyed the story and stay tuned 'till the next chapter and please do review!**

**Quote for the Story: "The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who is dead." –Albert Einstein**

**Windy "Hmm… that's true… and it strangely fits into the story."**

**Zap *looks under bed* "I can't find my metal spoons so I can shock the non-reviewers! The only ones I can't shock would be Maraya Prower and raewies, they gave us a reason why."**

**Windy *rolls her eyes* "Why don't you get a new one from the kitchen?"**

**Zap *scowls* "One does not simply 'get a new metal spoon from the kitchen'."**

**Windy "Great. Someone's been watching too much Lord of the Rings."**

**Zap "I'm only quoting it so you'll finish watching it. You've only seen the first movie!"**

**Windy *sighs* "I'll watch it… later."**

**Zap "That's what you said last time, Windy!"**


	4. Welcome Sangna

**Flame "'What doesn't kill you makes your stronger'…!"**

**Windy *sighs as she leans back in a chair* "You're singing that song again…?"**

**Flame *glares* "Make fun of my music and I'll make fun of yours while smashing a guitar into your head, smartie."**

**Windy *blinks* "Alright, alright! Calm down, by the Light Givers! Sheesh…! Anyways, the author left today to go do… what again?"**

**Flame *still glaring* "Like I care."**

**Windy *rolls eyes* "Of course you don't. On another note, she left Flame and myself in charge since the others went to do… what was it? Oh right, they all went to the mall to do who knows what and left Flame and myself in charge in case something bad happened. Anyways, thanks to the following for reviewing: BlackStormNomad, Maraya Prower, Strife the Dark 152, Chaosthehedgehog, raeweis, and Amicus! And here's the notes the author has left for you."**

**Storm (got another nickname for you!)= TNP! Anyways, yeah, creepy hedgie… anyways, glad you're liking the story (you too Braelyn!) and here's the next chapter! Thanks for the review!**

**Maraya= *applauds* Don't let Fanfiction stop you from reviewing, Rya! Anyways, you're right. You got a no for your explanations on more info about the 'mysterious hedgehog'. It will be explained soon, don't worry! Wait, this means you've totally called it nice :D.  
So obviously I can't tell you if you're right or not about the guess of going to the city but you are right about Katherine being able to hold her own on this, she **_**is**_** related to none other than Shadow the hedgehog! But you'll find out the answers and guesses to all your questions soon! Lol, love the quote by the way. I admit that I used to be afraid of death… until like a few years ago but that's another story haha.  
Zap *eyes light up* "Ah! Here it is!" *takes the spoon with a dark grin*  
Windy "Not you should stop "intimidating" the non-reviewers."  
Zap "Ha! Like I'd ever!"  
Windy *sighs* "Zap… one day you're going to shock yourself."  
Zap "And that same day you're going to watch Lord of the Rings, along with Maraya here and you too, BlackSandHeart. You've only seen the first movie **_**with**_** Windy."  
Me "Okay! Okay! Calm down! I'll see it eventually!"  
Zap *dead serious look* "And then we'll watch Star Wars."**

**Strife (oh, well I guess this is the chapter where I do it)= Glad it's good so far, I hope it stays that way. Things are going to get very interesting in this story very quickly… like literally when it starts. Anyways, I'll let you read and find out.  
Flame "Exactly. The only ones who would be friends with him… I don't even want to know."**

**Chaos= The Percy Jackson series… I loved those books. I remember being thrilled when the fifth book came out and read it in one fast day around the end of school… good times. I've been thinking about writing FanFics in other genres but I don't have any ideas… except one but I want to see how it turns out in this story first to see if people like the idea or not. I guess while I'm at this I might as well answer your questions too! 1. Hmm… I really don't know. I think I'd be Sonic for the caring side of him he gets for his friends, the dark part of Flame, Xerius, and Shadow, the cockiness of Chase and Chaos, and the naive part of Xsus. 2. Hmmm again… I look back at all the blond, Xsus moments I make. (My friends and family call them Skorsh moments, Skorsh was Xsus' original name) where I want to smack myself in the side of the head for thinking/acting like an idiot at that time and situation. So what was the story where Chaos went all Xerius on everybody?  
Xerius *sighs* **_**"Chaos, going silent isn't the brightest idea… wait. Why did you go Xerius anyways?"  
**_**And question… what exactly did you do to that reviewer? Either way, thanks for sticking out for me, friend!**

**Canucks/Hockey fan!= Yep! The search for Katherine begins! But will they be able to find her? Stay tuned… (lol I sound like one of those people at the beginning of TV shows "last time on yada yada yada…").**

**Friend in Latin= Yeah… hopefully Shadow will get back to his normal self sooner or later. I actually don't know if someone's going to get scared for this… I guess only the story will know! So wait, you had a dream about all us reviewers/me? What did we do?! I want to know! Knowing everyone on here we had to do something **_**really **_**interesting, we probably blew something up. Truthfully, I have only seen the first movie along with Windy… I fail at seeing the movies miserably, along with watching things on Youtube… lol. Anyways, glad you liked the story and here's the next chapter!**

**Disclaimer= I ****ONLY**** own the Dimension Jumpers and the bird Ferrius. This author doesn't own anything that belongs to SEGA. (If I owned SEGA then Zap would have a metal spoon power…)**

CHAPTER FOUR= WELCOME SANGNA

_?'s POV_

"RELEASING TEST SUBJECT… PLEASE HOLD." A robotic, female voice said and I felt cold, dead air smacking me in the face as the warm liquid disappeared, forcing myself awake. I opened my eyes slowly to find myself in a neat, room with computers running everywhere. Cool metal was on the floor, walls, and ceiling and no one was in the room as the oxygen mask fell off my face and the chamber opened, revealing real, fresh oxygen.

I sucked in the oxygen eagerly, feeling it boost my brain power instantly and I smirked confidently as I took a step out of the glass compartment. As soon as I was out, I investigated my form for the first time ever. Black fur… hmm… that was all that I could see. I was going to need a mirror.

Wait… how did I know what a mirror was? Heck, how did I know what _anything_ was?

I tried thinking about something before that robotic voice but came face to face with… nothing. I had no memory; that didn't make sense. Then how did I know what everything was?

I crossed my arms and looked around slowly, looking for a door when my ears twitched to an unknown sound and instinctively, I lifted my fists.

On the other side of the room, the blank wall opened itself, like an automatic door, and I narrowed my eyes as a black and red hedgehog walked towards me. He wore nothing but black boots with chains on them and had three eyes. Standing next to him, cowering slightly was a strange bat looking monster.

I raised an eyebrow and stood taller. "Who are you?" I asked and was shocked to find that my voice was that of a female… well, that explained what gender I was. I shook the thought away and crossed my arms across my chest again.

The hedgehog spread its arms out wide. "I am known as many things, my dear but you may call me Doom. Don't you remember me?"

"No… I-I don't remember anything about my past. But that doesn't give me any right to trust you." I growled.

Doom shrugged. "Very well. I understand your uneasiness. I would be the same if I had amnesia."

"Amnesia?" I echoed with a frown. That was the thing that people forgot things right? Yeah… did I have it?

"You were injured and I saved your life. Do you know your name, dear girl?" Doom asked seriously, the look in his eyes made me want to run and hide but I managed to hold my ground as I narrowed my eyes. I thought back… but came to another mental wall. This was worse than writer's block.

"No. I don't remember anything. I told you already." I said.

"Such a pity…" Doom said, looking at the ground sadly, but his voice hid… was that mockery? I growled quietly to myself as Doom looked at me again. "I could give you a name if you'd like?"

"Sure…" I said slowly.

"And tell you a thing or two about yourself."

"Give me the name."

"Sangna. Your name will now be Sangna." Doom said with a smirk. "Now about your past. I found you unconscious and brought you up here for some testing and surgery. If it wasn't for me you'd be dead. Thank heavens we used your strong spirit and another's spirit to keep you going."

"Another's spirit?" I echoed.

"Poor girl… dead now though." Doom gave me a look and I could see the inside of his eyes were laughing cruelly.

I raised an eyebrow. "Okay… that's not much to go on, Doom."

"I know…" Doom said slowly and dramatically, spreading his arms out wide as he did so. I was starting to _not_ like this hedgehog at all. "But… there is one way to regain your memory fully."

"What is it?" I raised an eyebrow, suddenly hopeful.

"Bring me the seven Chaos Emeralds…" The three eyed hedgehog said to me, a grin on his face. "With the seven Chaos Emeralds I will be able to unlock your memory and bring you back to your normal state."

"Why would you do that for me when I haven't done anything for you?" I asked seriously.

"I owe you more then you will ever know." Doom said seriously. "Now get the emeralds for me and your memory will be returned. Sounds like a fair trade?"

I frowned. "And what if I don't get the emeralds?"

"Then your memory will forever be locked." Doom shrugged, like the choice was simple. "You can get them or not, your choice. Either way I still will gather all of them myself for my own plans."

"Very well… I'll consider your offer then." I said, crossing my arms with a frown on my face.

Doom showed a scary smile. "I hope you choose our side."

I said nothing and Doom turned to the monster next to him. The thing looked similar to a bat but had black beady eyes along with razor sharp teeth. For some reason I wanted to slice the monster's head off with some weapon but I had nothing but my fists and fists weren't very good at slicing. "Pick some clothes out for the girl… she doesn't look like an official member in those clothes."

I looked down at my clothes, a dripping wet white shirt, tan pants, and black boots from being inside the glass capsule. I frowned and looked up at Doom. "Not an official member?"

"You've been missing for many years, Sangna." Doom said as he turned his back to me. The bat opened its large wings and flew away, going out the door… I mean wall.

I looked at Doom as he moved over to a computer, jiggled the mouse, and then typed a few command keys into the computer as he continued. "We used to be very close friends long ago… but you fell ill and never told me your real name and… well… you're going to have to find out the rest of the story when you get the Chaos Emeralds."

"Close friends?" I echoed with a frown. I was close friends with this creepy dude? Wow, now some part of me wondered if I _wanted_ my memory back.

Doom nodded and stood, up tall as the bat came back with a new set of clothes that the thing was somehow carrying on its back. The hedgehog took the clothes from the bat and handed them to me. He turned and was about to leave the room but he glanced back with a serious face. "Get changed in here and come out when you're ready."

I frowned as the hedgehog and bat left. The wall closed behind them and I investigated the new clothes. Black shorts with a weird logo on the side of them, a blank dark grey shirt, and red and white sneakers with rings on the top of them. Weird.

I shrugged and changed into the clothes, surprised to find that they fit perfectly. I checked out the logo on the corner of the pants, seeing a red symbol that looked similar to a spiral that spiked out in the end. Also very weird.

I looked around the room and picked up the black boots. I was going to keep these… just in case. Besides, they did look better then these weird black, white, and red sneakers. I walked towards the wall and decided that I wasn't going to even bother opening it. I kicked it with strength that surprised even me and the wall fell over, revealing a stunned Doom and bat monster.

"Well, that's one way." Doom said with a shrug. He motioned me to follow him and we walked down a long, metal hallway with overhead lights above. This place felt… safe somehow. Like I had been in a place very similar to it long ago and it brought back good memories that weren't coming to my mind.

"Have I been here before?" I asked Doom.

Doom nodded but didn't answer. I glanced over at the bat and noticed it was trembling slightly. After a few more twists and turns, we stopped before a control bridge. At the bridge, hundreds of different monsters standing before screens and other gadgets stood up and saluted. "Hail Lord Doom and Lady Sangna!" They all cheered at once.

Confused, I looked at Doom but he only smirked and looked back at the large cushioned chair that sat behind him before looking back at me. "Get the Chaos Emeralds… and all will make sense soon." He said and waved a hand towards me. "Chaos Control!"

And all went black.

-XXXXXXXX-

_Third Person POV_

"Katherine!" Xsus called, his hands to his lips as Cream and Cheese walked/flew next to him.

"Kathy!" Cream called.

"No, no," Xsus shook his head at her. "It's Katherine. She hates being called that."

"Oh right, sorry, Katherine!" Cream called again.

"Chao chao!" Cheese called.

Xsus stopped when he noticed an ice cream vender to his left and his face lit up excitedly. "Let's go get some ice cream, Cream!"

Cream frowned. "Aren't we supposed to be looking for Katherine?"

"We'll worry about that after we get some ice cream, come on! Everything looks better with a bit of ice cream." Xsus ran up to the vender and smiled up at him as the human vender looked down at him. He wore a white triangle hat, similar to a paper boat and had a gray mustache on. He had no hair on his head and he looked at the two kids with a confused look.

"Oh why hello there!" He said in an old man voice. "What can I get you two today?"

Xsus looked at Cream and waved a hand at the vender while grinning.

"Chocolate please!" Cream chirped up.

"And I'll have Chocolate too!" Xsus chimed in.

"Chao chao!" The chao cried, throwing its small arms into the air excitedly.

"Cheese would like some vanilla." Cream explained, smiling up at the vender as he opened his cart and pulled out three cones and started dumping spoonfuls of chocolate and vanilla ice cream onto the cones. Soon it was done and Xsus reached into his pocket and pulled out twenty rings that he got from Xerius before he left.

"Thank you, kids!" The old man smiled. "Have a nice day!"

"We will!" Xsus grinned and then he frowned. "Hang on, hey mister have you seen a girl coming through here? Long ears, tan fur, blue diamond in the center of her head?"

The vender looked thoughtful and shook his head. "No… I haven't. Sorry… if I do though then I'll let you kids know if you stop by again!"

"We will!" Xsus promised as he licked the chocolate ice cream, enjoying the chocolaty flavor it left in his mouth. He walked away with Cream and he held Cheese's ice cream as the little chao struggled to eat his large ice cream.

"Where else should we look for Katherine? She obviously hasn't been over here before." Cream said to Xsus.

Xsus frowned. "Well… we could always look in the northern section of the city. No one's looked over there yet."

Cream nodded and they started heading northwards when a blast of sudden wind kicked up and forced both of them to stop walking for a moment. Xsus concentrated and a blast of water shot up from the drain pipes and blocked a flying newspaper from smashing into his and Cheese's ice creams.

Cream looked at the soaked paper on the ground with a frown then looked at Xsus as she remembered he was a hydrokenisis. "What was that?" She asked, meaning the blast of wind.

"Probably Chase, he is the fastest thing in our dimension." Xsus shrugged with a grin. Then Chase zoomed back and slid to a stop next to him. He scowled at the ice cream in their hands.

"Out of the times we should be looking for a friend you have the nerve to buy some ice cream?" Chase demanded to them.

"Well, we found out that Katherine's not over here!" Xsus said cheerfully.

Chase rolled his eyes and ran off again, almost breaking the sound barrier as he zoomed away. Cream watched him go with a frown. "I think Sonic's faster, Xsus."

"Don't tell Chase that!" Xsus grinned and the two started laughing as they headed north.

-XXXXXXXXX-

Shadow and Sonic the hedgehog zoomed their way through the forest heading towards the large cliff that Angel Island was supposed to be flying (or was it floating…?) by in moments. Sonic chuckled to himself as he remembered last time he was around here it was during the Day of the Dead… good times.

Shadow said nothing as he ran alongside Sonic. He didn't even bother trying to make their race more complicated. The ebony hedgehog was lost in a whole other world, worried about his sister and her safety probably.

They ran out into the open and saw the large island floating its way silently across the canyon. Sonic and Shadow picked up their speed, jumped and made it onto the island without a scratch. Shadow was about to run when Sonic called to him. "Shadow."

Shadow glanced back angrily. "What do you want, Faker?"

"Why are we even here?" Sonic walked forward lifting his hands as he did so. "I mean, of all the places to look for Katherine why here?"

Shadow said nothing.

Sonic frowned. "Come on Shadow, talk. We're all friends here."

"And why would I be friends with you, Faker?"

"Just answer the question." Sonic sighed.

Shadow took a deep breath, like he didn't want to answer the question. "Fine. I wanted to check up on the Master Emerald to see if it is the Black Arms race that we're dealing with here. I don't care what Tails says, I have to see for myself. If it's them then my sister is in more trouble then you will ever understand."

Sonic nodded. "Alright… why didn't you just say so?"

Shadow gave him a look, very similar to Xerius' _"really?"_ look.

"Alright, alright," Sonic said and Shadow ran off with Sonic frowning to himself. "Shadow must be really worried about his sister since he told me his plans." He mused to himself. Then the blue blur shrugged and ran off after the black hedgehog.

-XXXXXXXX-

"If we connect the cables here and here…" Zap muttered to himself as he worked on the dimension jumping machine. Maria, Windy, Rouge, and Savanna stood around him as Zap worked with a frown on his face.

Savanna turned to Maria. "You know you can never go back to being human once you've changed… you know that right?"

"I know…" Maria said quietly. "But Katherine was the first real friend I've ever had. I'll take the risks to see her again. Besides, I wouldn't mind staying as a cat for the rest of my life."

Savanna smiled at her. "I admire your courage, Maria."

Maria dipped her head, her cheeks red with embarrassment.

"So Windy," Rouge floated next to the girl. "Where's Xie? I haven't seen him in almost three weeks and he's promised to take me on another date soon."

Windy laughed. "Don't worry about it. He went on a secret mission."

"What's the secret mission?" Rouge raised an eyebrow.

"If I told you it wouldn't be a secret anymore now would it, Rouge?" Windy said with a smirk on her face.

Rouge sighed, knowing she wasn't going to get anything out of the cat.

Suddenly Zap nodded and stood back, admiring the machine that looked the same it had ten minutes ago when they first got here. "There. She's finished and is a thing of beauty."

"Okay Zap, you keep telling yourself that." Windy snickered as she stepped onto the small metal plate large enough to fit all of them on. All of them gathered around and Windy glanced back at Maria.

"You sure…?"

"Positive. Now quit asking me!" Maria said, crossing her arms and looking annoyed.

Zap rolled his eyes and pressed the green button with his foot. Bright light surrounded the crew and then vanished, taking the machine with them.

Then, out of the shadows of the tree, a black cat stepped into the fading sunlight. Her ice blue eyes narrowed and she smirked. "Finally… they're gone. Now the next victim is going to be Katherine… once I find her. And after that it's Sonic." She said with a dark grin.

**Quote of the Story: "We live in a world where amnesia is the most wished-for state. When did history become a bad word?" –John Guare**

**Windy *ears perk up* "They're home!"**

**Flame "Quick! UPDATE THE STORY NOW LIGHT GIVER!"**

**Windy "Fine, fine!" *clicks 'post new chapter'* "There. Happy?"**

**Flame *emotionless face* "Extremely."**

**Me *walks in* "Hey guys! Did you upload the story…?"**


	5. New World, New Face

**Hello readers!**

**Anyways, here's the next chapter to The Return, hope you like it because this chapter has just as much interesting things as all the other chapters! Thanks goes to my reviewing family: Strife, Storm, Chaos, Rya, and Latin Friend. (raeweis and UnknownFollower are in this too… they just haven't reviewed yet).**

**Storm= TNP! Yeah, ice cream. It only fit for this chapter :D anyways, so what happens to Maria is going to be found out… but I can't tell you more. You're going to have to read it! Braelyn… good job! *applauds* thanks for the review!**

**Strife= True, that was quite a Mephiles move… glad you liked the comedy part. Xsus finally gets the sugar rush in this chapter. And glad you're liking the quotes! I'm trying to find the ones that match with the story- kind of hard actually.**

**Amicus= Okay, that's true. Chaos will probably deal with him if he comes back. Anyways, yeah I've heard of him a few months ago and (as strange as this is going to sound…) I expected him to come by and review, it was more like a hunch, Xerius moment I suppose… I just didn't expect him to go after my story so… harshly. Your older brother's right, he isn't the nicest flamer ever. My sister wanted to go after him and all these rude but smart comments and stuff... Anyways, I guess I do need to see LOTR. At least I've read the Hobbit… So, in your dream we just talked about the ten rules to life? Lol, strangely I can see it happening. Then Strife over there would've probably said something to change the conversation completely… anyways now I'm getting off topic. So, you're liking the story? Don't worry it gets better…! I wish I knew who you were talking about but don't say it- in case someone looks around at the reviews XD.**

**Rya= You're welcome friend! I used to do it all the time too… *guilty look*. I read a book though where at the end they purposely had one of the main characters die so people like us wouldn't do it anymore and since then I haven't done it haha. So, why is FanFic going against you…? Zap could probably fix that. Amnesia, writer's block, they're both terrible things let's just face it. LOL you're anti-joke made me laugh… and I'm guilty for doing it. Raeweis (Canadian friend reviewer) was telling me tons of them like this one:  
Why couldn't Sally get on the swing?  
Because she had no arms.  
Knock knock!  
Who's there?  
Not Sally.  
*falls over in guilty laughter*  
Sierra "What… are you doing…?"**

**Chaos= Lol "read you around"? Touché though… anyways, I wasn't sure what to think of when I saw they were making a fourth movie. So I guess if you say its good then I should go check it out! And your crossover story sounds amazing BTW! I plan on putting up your story while I write up the next one… but I'm not sure depends on if teachers don't go after me with homework. Also, I've never heard of SMBZ what's does it stand for and what's it about? Also, thanks for your help. I guess I owe you one!  
Zap *sighs* "Haters gonna hate."  
Katherine *anime tear drop as she watches Chaos fly off* "What was that all about?"  
Shadow "He probably likes Chocolate."  
Katherine *glares* "Well duh…!"  
Xerius *scowls* **_**"Very funny, Chaosthehedgehog."**_**  
Xsus "ICE CREAM?! I GET ICE CREAM?! YESSSS!"**

**DISCLAIMER= Ehhh… I don't feel like doing it…  
Zap "Step aside."  
Me *gladly steps to the right*  
Zap *pulls out another metal spoon and flicks it at the wall where it sinks deep into it like the wall is made of pudding. After a moment of silence, lightning flashes and the words: 'SONIC AND CO BELONGS TO SEGA. THE AUTHOR ONLY OWNS THE DIMENSION JUMPERS AND THE PLOT.' appear*  
Me "Nice!"  
Zap *walks away, leaving spoon in the wall* "And some people still have the nerve not to review."**

CHAPTER FIVE= NEW WORLD, NEW FACE

_Sangna's POV_

I found myself standing on the rooftop before a large street. Humans and Mobians moved here and there, all of them distracted by different things and sights, none of them seeming to notice me as I stood alone on top of the roof. I glanced back at the setting sun behind me with a frown and turned to look at the vibrant colors it shone across the sky. As I turned fully around, my shoe splashed something, causing me to look down and see… my reflection in a puddle of water.

I was a girl, with midnight black fur, small ears that looked a bit smaller and less pointy then a cats, and sky blue eyes. I frowned and leaned closer to the puddle to see blood red streaks in my bangs and hair that hung down by the bottom of my back. I lifted a hand out and touched the puddle, watching my reflection ripple, disappearing and then reappearing after a moment. I blinked and those blue eyes blinked too.

"So… you're me." I said to the puddle and watched the girl in the puddle echo my words without a sound. "Looks like we're both in this together."

I stood up tall and looked around the city. So… Doom wanted me to find some of these… _Chaos Emeralds_? Hmm… they sounded important. The word rang a bell in my mind but when I tried to remember their meaning… I found another blasted metal wall.

I grinded my teeth together in frustration. When I got my memory unlocked things were going to be a _lot_ simpler for me.

I jumped off the building with barely a sound and wandered around the city, looking around silently for something that had the word Chaos Emerald on it or something. No one paid much heed to me; they just went about their normal business without giving me a second glance. I wasn't sure if I was glad for that or not. I pushed the thought away after a moment of sharing eye contact with an ice cream vender; I had better things to be thinking about.

After a few minutes of looking around, a voice called out to me. "Excuse me? Lady!"

I glanced back in surprise as a little boy with golden fur and big ocean blue eyes ran up to me. His ears were almost as flat as paper and his ears were the size of maple leaves. I crossed my arms as he ran up to me. "Hi there!" He said excitedly, jumping up and down. With a smirk, I realized this little boy was on a sugar rush.

"Hello." I said and the boy froze.

He looked at me but was tapping his foot thanks to the access sugar in his veins. Then he shot a bunch of questions at me, rapid fire, like a machine gun. "Do I know you? What's your name? Do you like ice cream? What's your favorite color? Do you know I happen to love chocolate ice cream?"

I blinked slowly, this boy was _obviously_ insane.

"Xsus!" A voice called out behind the boy. The boy and I glanced behind him to see a pink cat with dog ears running towards us. She grabbed the boy named Xsus' arm and pulled him away from me.

She blushed at me. "Sorry, he's on a sugar high. We're looking for our lost friend. Sorry to disturb you."

I shrugged, saying nothing.

"Come on, Xsus." The pink cat said, turning her attention to Xsus.

"Aw, Ria!" Xsus pouted as he was led away by the cat named Ria. I crossed my arms and watched them go with a frown. Well… those two seemed like a nice group. But I couldn't worry about them. I had a memory I needed to regain.

I turned around and started walking again.

A car suddenly honked behind me and I glanced back to see a driver in a neon green Ferrari pull up behind me. The human inside honked the horn and leaned out his window. "Get out of the street!" He yelled at me.

I smirked. "Humans…" I shook my head pitifully and, following my instincts, snapped and the car blew up, sending a fireball high into the sky. I walked away while the rest of the humans and Mobians looked at me and then ran for their lives.

I felt unstoppable.

Invincible maybe.

I was going to get those Chaos Emeralds and _no one_ was going to get in my way.

-XXXXXXX-

_Third Person POV_

"Tails… look at this!" Cosmo said nervously as she and Omega watched the TV screen and the fox ran out of the room he was in moments earlier. He was building the machine to track Katherine's energy signature until Cosmo called out to him and now he looked at the TV to find a news broadcast of Central City.

The reporter was still talking: _"It's still unclear who caused the explosion. Many think it's the monsters that have been reported earlier today but some people claim they've seen the one who caused it…"_

The image changed to a picture of the man who gave Xsus and Cream ice cream. _"I was just selling my ice cream like any other ice cream vender…"_ he was saying. _"When suddenly this black cat comes down the street and blows up the car behind her like it was nothing."_

The reporter with the microphone frowned and pointed it to herself for a moment. _"Do you think it's the dimension villain Sierra?"_

The vender shook his head. _"No, no, this person seems to be even more ruthless then Sierra! I'm not sure who it is but whoever it is, it's dangerous!"_

Tails, his eyes wide with shock, pulled out his communicator and called Jason. "Jason! Is everyone okay?"

Jason appeared on the screen's communicator nodded. _"Yeah everyone's okay. Are you guys watching the news? Ria and Xsus say that they saw a black cat on the same street right before the… I think a bomb went off."_

Tails frowned. "What did she look like?"

Ria's face suddenly appeared. _"Well she had black fur with red streaks in her hair, blue eyes, a blue diamond on her forehead…"_

"THIS DISCRIPTION IS UNKNOWN TO MY RESOURCES." Omega stated. "SOUNDS REASONABLY SIMILAR TO SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG."

Tails nodded and looked at Ria's face again. "Get out of the city quickly before that terrorist blows up you guys up too."

Ria nodded. _"Got it!"_ And everyone's faces disappeared from the screen. Tails looked up at the TV screen and found himself breathing heavily. Was he scared of some unknown creature blowing up cars? Why?

"Tails? Are you okay?" Cosmo asked him.

"I- I'm fine." Tails took a deep breath and went back to the back of his workshop and went back to work using his machine. _Who is that person…?_ He thought to himself with a frown.

-XXXXXXXX-

"Hey Knucklehead!" Sonic said as he and Shadow slid to a stop at the bottom of the shrine to the Master Emerald. Sitting on the steps playing the face cards Go Fish game Maria showed them not too long ago was Tikal, Knuckles, Shade, and Chaos.

Knuckles glanced down with a frown then showed a cocky grin. "Hello Sonic. Care to play?"

Shadow crossed his arms next to Sonic. "We do not have time to play games."

Knuckles sighed and put his cards down and turned to look at them. "Alright, alright, hold on. Let me finish this game here."

Shadow growled in frustration while Sonic grinned, looking amused.

Shade smirked across from Knuckles. "I got all my Kings. The rest of you lose."

Tikal sighed and tossed her cards into the pile with Chaos while Knuckles jumped to his feet and started jumping around angrily on the steps leading up to the top of the shrine. "WHAT? How did you do that? You cheated, Shade!"

Shade shrugged and looked down at the hedgehogs. "So what do you need?"

Shadow took a step forward and lifted a fist. "I need to use the Master Emerald to see if the Black Arms have returned or not."

"The Black Arms?" Knuckles growled. "What happened?"

Shade nodded and let Shadow pass while Sonic quickly explained the situation involving Katherine. When he was done, Knuckles frowned. "It _sounds_ like the Black Arms but why haven't they attacked us directly? And have you seen the monsters? They look _nothing_ like the monsters Black Doom sent us last time."

Sonic shrugged. "I have no clue. It could be Eggman."

Shade nodded. "It sounds like something Eggman would do."

Sonic shrugged again as Shadow stood before the green Master Emerald. His crimson eyes flashed as he slowly reached out… and touched the emerald…

Suddenly, he wasn't on top of the shrine to the Master Emerald. He was gone, in outer space floating uselessly next to the Space Colony ARK. Shadow flinched at the sight of the ARK and forced himself to look away. He made peace with the ones who died there but the painful memories of what happened there were still fresh in his mind.

Shadow noticed something behind the giant metal space colony and somehow managed to push himself to the left to see a terrifying sight behind the Space Colony ARK.

A large, familiar, black comet stood behind the ARK. Shadow growled at the intelligence of the owners of that comet. Hiding behind the ARK made it easy for them to hide from Tails' machine to detect the aliens. They were back.

The Black Arms… they were back.

Shadow glared at the comet angrily and lifted a fist and suddenly, the image dissolved. He felt like he was falling for a moment and crashed to the ground and looked around with a frown as he struggled back to his feet. He was somewhere inside of Central City… he knew that was the case since it was close to HQ. The ebony hedgehog found himself on the rooftops and saw that some of the buildings were on fire. He looked to his left where he saw a black cat with red streaks in her hair.

The girl smirked and tossed the yellow Chaos Emerald in her hands into the air before catching it again. "Well… one Chaos Emerald down… six to go."

Shadow's eyes widened at the voice. He had heard that voice from somewhere before but face and voice didn't match together.

Suddenly, before he could fit the pieces together, the image disappeared again and he found himself back before the Master Emerald with Knuckles, Shade, Sonic, Tikal, and Chaos still arguing over the fact if Eggman was the cause of all of this or not.

"No it's not!" Knuckles growled. "If it was Eggman he would've shown his face by now, and doesn't he like _robots_?"

"Eggman has been known to do many _crazy_ things." Sonic said with a sigh.

"Well it isn't Eggman." Shadow said as he started walking down the stairs. Everyone turned to look back at him and he growled softly to himself. "It _is_ the Black Arms."

Everyone below him jumped back in surprise. "How's that possible?" Sonic demanded.

"They're hiding behind the ARK so Tails' tracking machine can't pick it up. They're using sneak attacks on us from space." Shadow growled. "It's a brilliant plan."

Sonic frowned but nodded. "Looks like we're in trouble again."

Shadow growled but also nodded.

Knuckles lifted a fist into the air. "Well then, let's defeat those aliens and get rid of them once and for all!"

Sonic grinned. "Does this mean you're tagging along, Knuckles?"

"Of course!" Knuckles pulled out a red Chaos Emerald. "You can't leave me out of a fight this extreme. Besides, it's Chaos' turn to guard the Master Emerald so Tikal and Shade can tag along."

Sonic laughed and the three Echidnas and two hedgehogs sped off, leaving Chaos behind to guard the Master Emerald. But, as the strange water form looked to the darkening sky; something told him that he wasn't going to stay here guarding for the entire fight…

-XXXXXXXX-

They appeared in the middle of Light Givers' square, scaring the light out of the bystanders. Zap growled at some kids that wanted to come up and poke him and they ran off giggling and screaming. Windy rolled her eyes and looked back at the team… but didn't see Maria.

_Oh great._ Windy thought. "Maria!"

"Yeah?" A golden hedgehog looked back at them and Zap, Rouge, Windy, and Savanna's eyes widened. She wore the same clothes Maria was wearing, a blue dress and small blue shoes that fit her small feet. Her quills stretched down her back and when she saw all of them staring she laughed. "What? Did I change?" She looked at her hands and started inspecting herself in shock before giggling. "Does someone have a mirror?"

"Um… I… what… hedgehog…" Savanna stuttered.

Windy put a hand on her friend's shoulder and swallowed as Maria leaned over the edge of the nearby fountain that stood in the center of Light Givers' square and examined her new reflection with big blue eyes. "Um… let's just take it easy for a moment, okay, Savanna?" Windy said.

Savanna could only nod until they heard a voice behind them. _"What are you doing here?"_

Rouge spun around. "Xie!"

"Rouge?!" Xerius yelped as the bat tackled him with a hug. He smiled and shook his head in disbelief and returned the hug. After the moment, he looked up at Zap and Windy and spoke telepathically again as Rouge let go of him. _"So… what are you doing back so soon?"_

Zap frowned. "I forgot…" with that, he quickly spilled out the situation they were in and what had to be done. When he was done, Xerius had a worried look on his face but wiped it off quickly, making the others not sure if it was there or not.

_"I see… how can I help?"_

"Help us by looking around in this dimension." Windy explained. "We'll investigate the Light Giver's section and then head south to the Followers of Darkness if we have to- which I hope is not the case."

Xerius nodded. _"I'll take the Sothern and Northern rims."_

"I'll come with you!" Rouge offered.

After looking at Maria, Savanna turned to Windy. "Maria and I could check out the western side."

Zap nodded. "Windy and I will take eastern side."

Windy frowned but nodded her head in agreement. "Everyone stay safe, and Xerius? No fighting with any Followers of Darkness, you hear me?"

Xerius nodded.

The group split up, Xerius grabbing Rouge wedding style and taking off in the air, Maria grabbed onto Savanna's arm and teleported, leaving Windy and Zap alone. Windy turned to the boy next to her with narrowed eyes. "You want to go to library don't you?"

Zap muttered something as he walked eastwards. "You're starting to get to know me too well, Windy." He finally said after a moment.

Windy ran to catch up with him and they were soon walking side by side. "What are you going to look for in this universe's biggest library? It could take us another million _years_ to find what you're looking for if you're not specific."

Zap shrugged and tapped the communicator Tails gave him. "Well, with the info we get we can narrow down the search."

Windy nodded. "So… what are you looking for?"

"Chemical substances," Zap said seriously. "I want to know what that black liquid and blood is doing to Katherine."

**Quote of the Story: "Did you want to see me broken?/ Bowed head and lowered eyes?/ Shoulders falling down like teardrops./ Weakened by my soulful cries." –Still I Rise, by Maya Angelou**

**There you go! Another chapter down and please do review…**

**Windy "Be aware though, if you review the author will try to make friends with you."**

**Me *glares* "That's not a bad thing!"**


	6. Undecided

**Hi Reader!**

**Okay straight to the story. A thanks goes to my reviewing family: Strife, Rya, Canucks fan, Chaos, Storm, and Amicus. Thanks also goes to the reviewer Therix.**

**Storm= Yeah, so many new characters and so many new things happening. Zap is smart when it comes to thinking logically… sometimes. Don't worry Braelyn! Everything should turn out fine… should… hmmm… anyways, thanks for the review!**

**Rya= I love choose your own adventure books! I always get myself miraculously killed though… lol. Glad you liked the Bad joke… ask raeweis for some… she has an entire book full of them! Anyways, seems like you know who Sangna is… but apparently she's not the same. I think we all hope for Xerius to tell his dream but then again, if he tells the dream it might seal the fate of what could happen to Katherine it could not… the future can be so confusing sometimes.  
Sierra "Outta the way Zap! I'll blast her out of the sky!"  
Zap *raises eyebrow* "Oh really…?"  
Windy *shakes head slowly***

**Therix= Thanks for the advice and the review.**

**Strife= Glad your liking the story! I'm actually struggling with this one around chapter fifteen. Anyways, yeah when Sangna was talking to Xsus and Ria I bet the people who knew what was happening there were like "Oh…! Soooo close..."  
Sangna *dryly* "Hello."**

**Canucks Fan= Raeweis! You're back and yes! Glad you like the story so far! :) Thanks for the review, and glad you like Maria being a hedgehog, it seemed like a good idea.  
Zap "Oh… glad you liked the disclaimer."**

**Chaos= Yep… we won! Which actually surprised me. I expected China to win the Olympics not us Americans. Heck, I didn't expect us to win in general. Anyways, loved the story idea. It sounds flipping amazing! I hope to see you write it out soon! About that one reviewer, Therix, idk about that guy. He wasn't harsh and cold like Lord… whatever, can't remember anymore's review was. He actually had some helpful advice written down that proved a point... try to go easy on him (or her…) Chaos! He wasn't trying to kill the story ;) anyways, lol, your end note it made me laugh. You're just as random as I am sometimes! :D  
Anyways, important note to add. I was just typing ahead on the chapters to this story when Chaos just suddenly appeared (I let the story write itself…). Would it be okay if Sonic and everyone else didn't know who he was? (except Katherine, Shadow, and Maria of course)  
Zap *pulls out cowboy hat from who knows where and puts it on before pulling out two AK-47s* "It is on."  
Katherine *looks at Chaos* "Are… you… okay little brother?"**

**Amicus= Zap "Yes. The Fan club is still open. I've been **_**trying**_** to get the author to make a forum based off my amazingness but…"  
Me *face palm* "Zap… I told you…" *Sighs* "Anyways, Sangna is pronounced 'Sang-na'. So, glad you liked the chapter I worked hard on that one :D Thanks for the review, my Latin Friend!**

**DISCLAIMER= Lol, raeweis, Chaos, and Amicus liked the last one so…  
Xsus *turns to Cream as he sits alongside a lake next to a fishing pole* "Watch this!" *waves a hand over the water and the words: 'Cream and co. belong to SEGA. BlackSandHeart owns the Dimension Jumpers and the plot' appear.*  
Cream *gasps* "That's amazing Xsus!"  
Xsus *grins then falls into the lake as a fish bites on his fishing pole and yanks him and it in***

CHAPTER SIX= UNDECIDED

"Tails… are you almost done?" Cosmo asked nervously as she peaked into the dark room. It was almost ten at night and the dark sky outside was covered with stars. The moon was nowhere in sight and was probably on the other side of Mobius.

The seedrian walked inside the room and switched on a light switch, emitting bright light to shine down on a sleeping fox.

Tails sat up straight with a yelp and screamed something about Terrarock and Black Arms. He looked over and took a deep breath when he saw Cosmo and forced a smile while rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry Cosmo… what do you need?"

"I was wondering if you've finished." Cosmo said seriously.

"With what?"

"The machine."

"Oh right!" Tails looked around and pulled a small silver box towards him with a dial and a red button on it. He turned to Cosmo with a worried expression. "This is it… but I'm not sure if it's going to work. Especially if Katherine's in the other dimension."

"It's all that we have. It's a step closer to finding our friend." Cosmo said boldly, lifting a fist as she spoke.

Tails smiled and nodded. He hopped off the desk and stumbled outside to the front room, yawning. He found the TV still on and E-123 Omega staring (if robots could do that) at it intently. The robot spun its head sideways, stood up taller and slowly turned to the two.

"NO INFORMATION THAT COULD REVEAL OF KATHERINE'S LOCATION HAS SHOWN ITSELF ONTO THE MACHINE HUMANS CALL 'TELEVISION'." Omega stated.

Tails frowned and started walking around the couch. He remembered back before Christmas the last time he was here Sonic was lying on this very couch, healing from his Leech Worm attack… good times. The memory made Tails smile as he sat on the blue couch. It was a miracle it had survived the attack against the Meterex when they invaded his home/workshop during the Day of the Dead. Cosmo took a seat next to him and put her hands in her lap.

"Should we call the others?" Tails finally asked.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang.

Omega turned towards the door and lifted his machine guns as Tails stood up and moved to the front door. He cautiously opened it, peered around the corner of the door and looked up into the face of Jason. "Jason!" Tails swung open the door and behind it was everyone that went into Central City. "You guys are okay! Did you find anything?"

Chase shook his head as he walked into the house followed by everyone else. Tails stepped to the right while the group moved in. "Nothing."

Following the three of them, Tails was shocked to see three more new, yet familiar faces. "Hey Tails, long time no see!" Vector the crocodile said to the fox with a grin on his face. Espio the chameleon and Charmy the bee walked/flew in after him.

"Oh… hey guys…" Tails laughed weakly as Cosmo moved up to stand beside him.

"What are you three doing here?" Cosmo asked.

"Well… we're… here…" Vector started to say.

"We're here to help you find Katherine and maybe stop the terrorist in Central City while we're at it. She burned our detective agency to the ground." Espio said seriously, interrupting Vector.

_"We interrupt your broadcast to bring this special news update about the terrorist in Central City." _A reporter said. Her voice caused everyone to look at the screen in surprise and Xsus jumped over the edge of the couch to sit while the others gathered around or sat on the couch with Xsus as the reporter continued.

_"According to officials, we managed to catch a short video of the terrorist and bares a similar resemblance to the G.U.N. agent known as Shadow the hedgehog." _The reporter said and suddenly an image of a black cat appeared jumping across rooftops like doing it was as easy as hopscotch squares. The cat stopped and looked back, revealing blue eyes and red streaks in her hair. _"We do not know who this cat is but if you are in Central City you must evacuate the city now."_

"That's her!" Ria yelped. "That the girl I saw!"

"Wow…" Amy said quietly after a moment. "It's almost like she owns the city… with the way she's jumping around and lighting things on fire."

Xsus flinched and looked back at Amy. "Wait… what did you say?"

"I just said it seemed like she owned the city." Amy said with a frown. "What's wrong with me saying that?"

"N-nothing…" Xsus looked at the ground. _That was one of the things someone said in Xerius' dream! I can't tell them about his dream though… I promised not to say a word about it. _Xsus thought to himself nervously.

Jason frowned then looked at the TV screen. "Whoever this girl is… she looks like trouble."

The others could only nod their heads.

Then, Tails remembered the energy remote in his hands. "Wait, hang on, here's the machine I built. With this it should help us pinpoint Katherine's location!"

Ria spun around, hope lighting up in her eyes. "What are we waiting for? Start the search!"

Tails nodded and pressed the red button. There was a moment of silence as the machine popped up a mini satellite disk and started spinning slowly. The crew waited for the longest five minutes of their lives.

Then the satellite snapped close into the remote. A red flashing light appeared and Tails' eyes grew wide in shock and fear. "W-what?! That's impossible!"

"What? What is it?!" Xsus demanded as Charmy dropped down next to him.

"Yeah, Tails, what is it?" Charmy chimed in.

Tails frowned, his hands shaking uncontrollably. "The results found nothing! Either two things happened if that's the case, Katherine completely changed her energy signature or she's dead!"

-XXXXXXX-

"Alright," Sonic said as he ran at a slower pace with Shadow to let the three Echidnas following him keep up. "Central City isn't too far from here. We'll regroup with the people that are here then head back to the workshop. It's getting late and I'm almost positive that Tails is done."

The others nodded and Shade frowned, sniffing the air. "Is that… smoke?"

Everyone slid to a stop and took a moment to inhale the air but only got black air in their lungs. All of them coughed and frowned, looking at the sky and seeing white flecks falling from the sky like false snow. "It's… ash…" Shadow said quietly as a large flake of the ash fell into his gloved hand.

"From what though?" Knuckles wondered quietly.

Sonic paled. "Central City!"

The group took off again and burst out of the woods to find… Central City on fire. Large, flames of orange, yellow, and red licked the sides of buildings. As they stared, parts buildings fell over into the fire below. Shadow took a step forward, his crimson eyes glowing in the flames. "Who… who could've done this?"

Sonic walked up to stand next to him. "I- I don't know. This is pretty extreme for something like Eggman to do, even Sierra."

"The Black Arms…" Shadow growled as the realization hit him.

"I don't think so… look!" Tikal said as she pointed to the tops of the burning building. Everyone's eyes moved to the place Tikal was pointing and were shocked to see two figures fighting at impossible speeds.

"Who's that?!" Shade gasped as Sonic squinted after a moment, his eyes widened.

"One of them is Sierra!" He charged forward. "We have to help her out! She's in trouble!"

Knuckles grabbed his arm before he could run off and ditch them completely. "Excuse me, Sonic but we're not going to just walk in there and help our arch nemesis. Besides, the person who's fighting her could be doing us a favor."

Shadow's eyes narrowed. "I don't think so… look."

Everyone looked back to the rooftops and gasped as the other person lifted a hand and a white beam of energy shot out and hit Sierra, throwing the cat off the building and into the ground.

"That's it!" Sonic shoved Knuckles off him and ran off.

"Sonic!"

"You head to Tails' workshop." Shadow growled to the Echidnas. "I'll get Faker!"

"But Shadow!" Tikal took a step forward but Shadow was long gone, running after Sonic as fast as his rocket shoes could carry him.

"Come on…" Knuckles said after a moment of stunned silence. "Let's go…"

The three Echidnas then ran off, heading towards Tails' workshop without looking back once.

-XXXXXXXX-

_Sangna's POV_

Ooooh that blasted black cat was getting on my _nerves_! Marches into _my_ city comes up to me and demands for me to hand over the Chaos Emerald. When I told her it was mine she gets all prissy with me and then tries to kill me! How did _that _happen?!

The black cat, who called herself Sierra, stood and glared up at me with icy cold blue eyes while I crossed my arms angrily. Was everyone in this world like this? Demanding and rude? Humph. If that was the case I wouldn't care if Doom suddenly decided to blow this place up.

I lifted a hand out to Sierra and concentrated. "Chaos…" I said, conjuring up energy that came from the Chaos Emerald in my other hand. I didn't know how I knew the move… it just came to me naturally after Sierra punched me in the face a few rounds back, just like that white beam of energy I used earlier. "BLAST!"

A flash of energy shot down towards Sierra as she stood up and was suddenly not there anymore. Was she dead? I looked around and then noticed two people on the building straight across from me. I narrowed my eyes as I saw it was a blue hedgehog carrying the cat Sierra wedding style, but Sierra was unconscious, not able to thank her savior.

"Can't let you hurt her, sorry!" The hedgehog laughed. His voice made my eyes widen. I knew that voice! _But from where…_ I thought and then ran into another mental wall. I growled in frustration, memory loss was now _really_ getting on my nerves… just like Sierra was.

"I don't have any quarrel with you, hedgehog. Put Sierra down so I can slice her head off!" I yelled to the hedgehog.

The blue hedgehog's eyes narrowed. "What?!"

Oh good. Now he couldn't hear me either. I sighed in disbelief as a black hedgehog with red stripes in his quills appeared next to the blue hedgehog from thin air. My eyes narrowed… he kind of looked like me… in a weird way.

"Sonic, we have to get out of here!" The black hedgehog growled, his crimson eyes turned towards me and narrowed as I looked at him silently.

The blue hedgehog, or Sonic I suppose, nodded. "Alright, we're taking Sierra along too though."

The black hedgehog growled and nodded. "I'll cover you."

Oh so he was going to _cover_ the blue hedgehog? Oh that was terrific too. My day just kept getting better and better. I was about to shrug it off and let them go when I felt a familiar feeling in my body… one of those hedgehogs had possession of a Chaos Emerald. I smirked darkly and lifted my fists.

The blue hedgehog flashed a worried look at the black hedgehog then took off with Sierra in his arms. The black hedgehog turned around and ran after Sonic and I jumped after them. I was thankful for these weird… rocket shoes Doom gave me. They helped me run twice my normal speed and I was able to almost catch up with the other two hedgehogs easily.

My eyes narrowed. Now which one had the emerald…? I pulled out the yellow Chaos Emerald from my pocket and concentrated for a moment until I felt a pull towards the black hedgehog. "Aha! Found you!" I said quietly with a confident smirk.

I pushed the shoes I was wearing to their limit and was soon running alongside the black hedgehog, who seemed prepared for me. We both looked at each other and I had a _very_ annoying feeling that I knew this hedgehog too once. In fact, this feeling was even _worse_ than when it was for Sonic.

"Buzz off!" The hedgehog growled and lifted a hand towards me. "Chaos…"

"Control!" I yelled instinctively and suddenly, time stopped on the street around us for a moment. I slid to a stop ahead of the black hedgehog and slowly walked back towards him, investigating him as I shrugged off the fact I could stop time. Once I gathered these Chaos Emeralds it would make sense on how and why I could do these things.

He had red streaks in his quills and looked mysteriously similar to Doom. I shook the thought away as I stood right in front of him and read his thoughtful expression. With a sigh, I reached my hand through his soft black quills and pulled out a white emerald. I took a step backwards and as soon as I did, time started again and the ebony hedgehog and Sonic with Sierra zoomed away.

"Finally!" I said with a smile on my face as I looked down at the emerald but I frowned when I realized this one looked different from the other emerald I had. It had a weird black mass in the center of it. "What… is that…?" I said with a frown, squinting at the dark mass.

Suddenly, a white light flashed across my eyes along with a searing headache. I let out a cry and fell to my knees as the light formed figures and then formed images and voices echoed in my mind. But all the images were too blurry to make out.

_"I hate this idea."_A voice full of annoyance said.

The image changed to a new scene.

_"Don't let the spiders bite you and… then chew your brains out." _A new voice said in a dramatic voice.

"_I made a promise…"_ A weak but strong voice called out suddenly.

"_Kathy's right…" _Another new voice said.

A new place appeared but the people there and in the background were still difficult to focus on.

"_You hugged your sister, awww how cute." _A familiar voice said.

"_TERRAROCK!"_ Another familiar voice roared.

The images shifted around and I heard the sound of gunfire as the sound of an automatic door opened. I heard voices scream a name that couldn't make any sense in my mind and then it was all over. The light vanished and I found my hands gripping the asphalt tightly and sweat on my brow. My arms were shaking and I noticed a pair of sneakers before me. I slowly looked up into dark crimson eyes holding onto the white emerald that was in my hands moments earlier.

"This belongs to my sister." The black hedgehog I thought I had lost growled to me. "You'll never touch it again, EVER."

I could only blink as the hedgehog then shot away. I struggled to my feet and watched the hedgehog run off and I took a deep breath, trying to focus on what those images meant. Who were those voices? Who shot who? And what was that person's name that got shot…?

I took a step forward and then fell to the ground when my legs crumbled underneath me. I laid on the cold asphalt with flames and ash surrounding me before I passed out cold.

**Quote of the Story: "And so we remained till the red of the dawn began to fall through the snow gloom. I was desolate and afraid, and full of woe and terror. But when that beautiful sun began to climb the horizon life was to me again."—Bram Stoker**

**Hmm… who could be this mysterious girl, Sangna? Stay tuned for more in the next chapter!**

**Xsus *pulls himself out of lake with a five foot fish. Struggles to show the fish* "Look what I got!"**

**Cream *claps hands excitedly as Xsus lets the fish go***

**Me *sighs and shakes head slowly* "Anyways, don't forget to review!"**


	7. One Shot

**Hello Reader! –Hmmm… I'm sounding like someone I know…**

_**Anyways**_**, special thanks goes to my reviewing family for reviewing (you guys are amazing): Rya, Strife, raeweis, Storm, Chaos, Amicus, and UnknownFollower. Thanks also goes to the people that reviewed on my other stories: Resident Evil Lionhart (Shadow's Gathering) and Trubeque (Dimension Jumpers)!**

**UnknownFollower= No flipping way! You're ancestors are from ****Norwegia****? I always wanted to visit that country I heard it's beautiful… but I've never taken one step out of the states yet. *Scowls* not even to Canada (okay once there, it was for like for five minutes though and I was three) or Mexico. Go ahead and sing (or write…?) the anthem! Anyways, glad you're liking the story and it's good to have you back, friend!**

**Chaos= Good, thanks Chaos ;) Anyways, if we have a contest like that you know you're going to win for sure, right haha? So, you're going on vacation? What's with everyone going to different places recently? Anyways, I hope you get Wi-Fi while you're out there it'll make the story more interesting if you review (like always)! A knife…? Huh… wonder why that happened.  
Katherine *pales* "Wait, what did I do wrong? …at least you're okay. The last thing I want is my little brother to get hurt." *cocky grin***

**Strife= I'm not sure if I can ever repay you for the help you gave me. Thanks, Strife. Anyways yeah… Sangna is acting like herself but a little darker… in strange ways.  
Sangna *glares* "No. Go away."**

**Resident Evil Lionhart= Glad you liked the story! Hope you're enjoying this one just as much (New record 101 reviews! Thank you!)**

**Trubeque= I never noticed your review until now *laughs weakly* sorry. Glad you liked the story!  
Zap *scowls* "It is on."**

**Storm= TNP! Glad your liking the action! More will pop up soon, promise! Thanks for the review!  
Xsus *giggles* "Yes really! I fell into a lake!"**

**Maraya= I love stories like that! I had that happen to me awhile ago where I swear my heart stopped. Yeah, don't worry. As long as you don't tell Xerius won't either. The only one other than Xerius that knows about it is Xsus- in the story. Anyways, I **_**love**_ **Greek mythology too! Bet since you know so much about them you've read the Percy Jackson series…? (Best books ever).  
And TAKE THAT Doom! You can't stop… ah… oh… I'm going to ruin the story hehe *anime tear drop*.  
Zap *raises eyebrow*  
Sierra "I am **_**not**_** a softie!."  
Windy "Yes you are. Now shut it."  
Sierra *glares daggers at her* "And, I could've handled myself." *sticks nose into the air proudly***

**Raeweis= Haha, almost everyone has an idea on who Sangna is… and you're going to find out in this chapter…! Oh, thanks for the review, friend!  
Xsus *claps hands* "Yay! She liked it! She liked it!"**

**Amicus= Sorry to confuse you! But the answer to that question gets answered in this chapter…  
Sangna "…Thanks for the compliment."  
Xsus "I'm a hydrokenisis… wait… does that mean I can still drown?" *pales and eyes grow to the size of dinner plates*  
Sangna "Humph! First place."  
Sonic "Right behind ya, Sangna!"  
Zap "Keep in mind who's holding the spoon here, Sonic."  
Sonic *blinks slowly***

**DISCLAIMER= Flame *glances at Sierra then looks at the electric guitar in her hands* "Alright… here goes nothing…" *plays a cord and a sound wave from the speakers create the classic words: 'Sonic and co. belong to SEGA. BlackSandHeart owns everything else' in the cracked glass, created from the sound wave.*  
Sierra "Impressive."  
Flame *smirks* "Nothing to it."**

CHAPTER SEVEN= ONE SHOT

A knock was heard on the door again inside Tails' workshop and Knuckles nervously opened the door to reveal a panting Sonic carrying an unconscious Sierra in his arms. He grinned sheepishly. "Got room for two more?"

"Sonic! What you're finally here! And is that _Sierra_?!" Knuckles yelped.

Sonic rolled his eyes and walked in while everyone looked at the unconscious black cat nervously. Sonic set her down on the couch- that everyone quickly cleared- and sat down on the edge by her feet. He looked around with a frown on his face. "Did you guys find her?"

A shake of heads went up around the group.

"We have told Tails and the others of the situation with the Black Arms…" Tikal said quietly.

"And Tails' machine didn't work either." Xsus added, lowering his head sadly.

Sonic frowned and the door flew open without a knock. Everyone looked back to see Shadow the hedgehog walking in, gripping Katherine's emerald tightly in one hand with a scowl. The ebony hedgehog moved to stand over by Omega and Sonic slowly turned his attention back to Tails.

"So, it didn't work?" He asked.

"No," Tails admitted sadly. "The machine gave up on working… Katherine must be dead if that's the case or she changed her energy signature entirely."

"That's impossible." Shadow growled. Everyone looked at him as he gripped the emerald tightly in his hand. "This emerald belongs to Katherine and contains part of her soul…"

"Wowa, I think someone forgot to mention that." Sonic chuckled.

Shadow glared at him but continued his statement. "Once the emerald is destroyed it means she's dead. Since I still hold it in my hands and it is _still_ glowing with power, she's still alive. Try putting your machine up to the emerald, I'm sure it'll work this time."

Tails frowned but marched up and cautiously grabbed the emerald. He set the emerald on the white carpet and set his machine next to the emerald. After a few quick buttons, the mini satellite dish popped out and started spinning again.

Everyone held their breath for the longest time and then the satellite dish snapped close... and started flashing green. Tails' eyes lit up excitedly and he picked up the small machine, inspecting it thoroughly. "From the machine… it says she's alive and in Central City!"

"Where that terrorist is at?!" Ria yelped. "What is she _thinking_ going there?!"

"That is a little extreme." Jason admitted nervously. "Even for something Katherine would do. She would never hunt down a terrorist, unless it was Sierra."

"Well, that explains everything doesn't it?" A familiar, dark voice said. Everyone glanced over at the couch in surprise to see that Sierra had woken up… and she hadn't tried to kill anyone yet. Her ice blue eyes looked around the room as they stared at her in shock.

"W-what do you mean it explains everything?" Jason finally said, shaking his head to get rid of his shock.

Sierra shook her head slowly, a smirk on her face. "Silly, silly, Light Giver. It's so obvious!"

"Enough games!" Shadow growled. "What's going on?"

Sierra's eyes darkened for a moment and her smirk vanished. In a dead serious voice, she spoke. "It's because that girl _is_ Katherine."

-XXXXXXXX-

"…Control!" A voice cried and out of a swirling blue mass a silver hedgehog and a lavender cat fell out of and crashed into the ground hard. Both of them yelped in pain as they crashed onto the ground but quickly got to their feet.

The silver hedgehog looked around. "What…? Is this really the time period when things started going out of whack and a new evil rose from the darkness?"

The lavender cat scowled. "Why is it always Sonic's timeline?" She muttered to herself.

The silver hedgehog shrugged. "Beats me, we should probably find the source of the problem here so we can go back home faster. You know how mom is when we're late for dinner."

The cat paled as she remembered the crossed swords on Silver's wall. "Alright… let's hurry."

The two started running off towards the direction of Central City. They had woken up one morning days ago to find terrible news about a new evil from the past rising up and taking over the world and the evil threatened to destroy the peace of the future. Silver and Blaze, the hedgehog and the cat, offered to go to the past and figure out what the problem was and get rid of it… which was what they were doing now.

"Hmm… ash…" Blaze said as she looked at the white flakes falling from the early morning sky. The ash was thick enough to make her unsure if there were or weren't any clouds in the sky and the smoke was thick enough to make her want to gag.

Silver watched the ash fall. "Whoever's doing this isn't a good person."

"I think whoever it is is burning down the city." Blaze said sadly. "And Central City is my favorite place to go to too with Amy and Cream…"

"Don't worry," Silver reassured her. "We'll get our justice on this villain and Central City will be back to normal before you know it!"

Blaze smiled. "Thank you, Silver."

Silver grinned at her as they ran out of the forest and came face to face with the burning city before them. Blaze frowned at the sight and Silver looked around, trying to locate the source of the "problem" that was causing the future to go out of whack.

"Come on, let's head into the city but keep your guard up in case someone tries to kill us." Blaze finally said. Silver nodded and the two ran into the city. Once inside, they cautiously walked around, quietly, listening the crackling of wood burning. Some places had finished burning and smoke floated lazily out of the remains of these buildings.

Silver looked around, his eyes tearing up from the smoke. "You see anything?"

"Nothing," Blaze shook her head.

They walked on, finding nothing but burning remains of different vehicles, buildings, practically everything that wasn't entirely metal.

"Hello?" Silver finally cried and Blaze rolled her eyes in exasperation.

"Hello." A voice said. Silver and Blaze's ears twitched at the voice and both looked backwards onto a rooftop that was slowly burning away. A black cat sat on the edge of the building and was looking down at them with a scowl. She swung her legs back and forth as she looked at them.

Silver scowled himself and pointed up at her at her. "You! Are you the one causing all of this to happen?"

The girl rolled her eyes, looking mildly annoyed by his question. "Am I?"

Silver froze at the voice and Blaze did too, both looking generally scared. Both knew that voice… but the voice and face didn't match at all. Blaze took a step backwards and gasped as she stared at the girl. "K-Katherine?!"

"Do I know you?" The girl frowned. They looked and sounded familiar but she couldn't put the pieces of this confusing puzzle together. She ran into a mental wall and that only brought the scowl onto her face for the millionth time.

"Katherine, it's me, Silver!" Silver the hedgehog took a step forward and the girl narrowed her blue eyes.

"Never heard of you." She said seriously.

"You look just like your brother…" Blaze gasped quietly.

"I have a brother?"

"Amnesia…" Silver whispered to Blaze and Blaze nodded slowly. The two looked at the girl and Blaze lifted a hand out to the girl she called Katherine.

"Come with us, Katherine. We can lead you back home… where you belong."

"And what if I don't want to go 'home'? I don't belong anywhere or to anyone. Besides, the name's Sangna." Sangna sniffed.

"You can belong with us," Silver offered. "We're not from here anyways."

Sangna crossed her arms and glared at them. "And… if I say no?"

"We'll bag you and drag you with us." Blaze threatened.

Sangna growled. "Fine. You've made your point clear. Lead the way."

"Follow us," Silver said. Sangna jumped off the building and landed silently in front of the two of them, giving both suspicious looks. Silver pointed north after giving Sangna another nervous glance. "Tails' workshop is that way. I'm sure Sonic and the others that are there can help us."

Blaze nodded and Sangna shook her head. "Sonic? The blue hedgehog? Met him, hate him."

"Hate him?" Silver looked back at her nervously.

Sangna shrugged. "But… if we must I will come, but if Sonic's dead by the time we leave it's not my fault."

Blaze and Silver looked at each other nervously. This was new.

"Come on, Katherine… I mean… Sangna… can I call you Sang?" Silver asked.

"Do I look like I'm singing?" Sangna scowled. "And I'm _not_ Katherine."

"Your voice though…" Silver started to argue but was stopped by Blaze when she shook her head at him. Silver sighed in disbelief but nodded allowing himself to look away from Katherine… er… Sangna… whoever and lead the way.

The three were running silently through the streets and Silver and Blaze kept an eye on the girl who called herself Sangna as they took a few twists and turns. Blaze waved a hand at the flames as they ran by. "Are you causing this, Sangna?"

"Hmm? Oh the flames. Of course." Sangna smirked.

"Why would you do that?"

"The car tried to hit me." Sangna said with a shrug. "But truly I'm just hanging around here and debating about gathering the Chaos Emeralds or not."

"The Chaos Emeralds? Why are you gathering them?" Silver asked, glancing back.

Sangna gave him a look. "Top secret, info, hedgehog. Sorry."

"The name's Silver."

"Silver…? Silver…" Sangna looked thoughtful but scowled when she ran into another mental wall. She glanced at the cat. "And you…?"

"Blaze. Blaze the cat."

"Nice to meet you, Blaze." Sangna dipped her head.

Silver and Blaze glanced at each other as they ran further on, in between streets and burning roads. Silver wondered what happened to her if this girl _was_ Katherine… no wait, it had to be her. There was no other logical explanation.

Suddenly, from the sky above, a monster dropped down and let out an ear deafening roar. The trio slid to a stop and then looked up at the monster as it lifted itself high into the air and looked down at them with its little head. Katherine/Sangna/whoever scowled. "Oh it's _you_ again!"

The monster heard her voice and looked down at her, frowning. Sangna pushed her way past Blaze and Silver and waved a hand at them. "Get out of here you two, I think I'm good staying with this bad boy." She told them.

"But it could kill you…!" Silver started protesting and Sangna glanced back at him angrily.

"Go, now, before I kick your butts myself."

Blaze frowned and turned to Silver. "Let's find Sonic. He'll know what to do."

Silver unwillingly followed Blaze and both started running off. As they ran, Silver glanced back at Sangna as she looked up at the monster and after a turn around a corner, both were gone.

Sangna turned her attention towards the monster. "What are you doing here, big guy? I thought you'd be working with Doom and not be down here."

The monster bowed before her, shocking Sangna. When he spoke, it was a ragged voice and Sangna could barely understand the words she heard. It was like the monster gargled rocks every morning. "Your highness!" The giant growled politely and Sangna gave him a funny look. Her blue eyes flashed as she inspected the monster.

"What do you want?" She asked. "Do you know me?"

"You are the daughter of the high lord Black Doom!" The monster dipped his head politely. "Do you not know your destiny? You're born to lead the army of the Black Arms and destroy this pathetic race with the help of Doom!"

The girl in front of the monster said nothing, giving him a confused look so the monster continued, nodding his head.

"Yes my lady, Black Doom! Doom demands an audience with his daughter."

Sangna raised an eyebrow. "Black Doom?"

The monster flinched. "That is the master's real name."

"Black Doom…" Sangna mused thoughtfully. She turned around and started to walk away, head held high. "Tell my _father_ that I deny his request. I'll rule this world without his help."

"But, Lady Sangna!" The monster got down on its knees and dipped his head towards her as Sangna stopped and looked back at the thing. The look on his face read: _I'm not worthy, don't kill me!_

Sangna scowled at him. "Yes?"

"Master Doom would like you to stay in this city for awhile longer. He demands to see you as soon as he has touched down on this planet." The monster muttered.

Sangna's scowl grew. "Fine. When is he coming?"

"S-soon…" the monster promised. "Follow me and I can take you to the place he wishes to meet you at."

Sangna shrugged _why not?_ She mused to herself as she followed the monster out down the road to Doom or Black Doom's meeting place for her.

**Quote for the Story: "An injured friend is the bitterest of foes." –Thomas Jefferson**

**Flame "Humph."**

**Sierra *looks over from sharpening her sword* "Something wrong, friend?"**

**Flame *lifts up her guitar* "It's off tune after that big entrance we had."**

**Sierra *rolls her eyes* "Then tune it."**

**Flame *glares* "And if I don't want to?"**

**Sierra "Then don't!"**

**Flame *grumbles something and starts tuning the guitar***

**Me *shakes head slowly* "Anyways, hope you liked the chapter and please do leave a review! See you when the next chapter comes around! As Xsus puts it: reviews are like getting a hug on the darkest of days."**

**Lol… I can see some of you family reviewers with the part Sangna is Katherine going 'called it'!**


	8. Discovery

**Windy *glances over as I walk in* "You're late… and what's with the clothes?"**

**Me *grins sheepishly as I straighten my cowboy hat* "Sorry, it's Spirit Week at my school and today I got to dress up like a cowboy."**

**Windy *rolls eyes* "I see and why are you dripping wet?"**

**Me *scowls and points to the window* "Have you heard the thunder outside? Or the rain?"**

**Windy *glances lazily out the dark window* "Well, looks like Boom, Zap, and Wave are at it again today."**

**Me *nods* "Yeah Zigzag and Screamo have been at it for hours to see who can scare the most kids."**

**Windy *shakes head slowly* "I can't believe I know them."**

**Me *sits at the computer* "Anyways, for those of you who don't know, Wave and Boom are friends of Zap and Windy's. Wave has a knack for the water and she's a hydrokenisis like Xsus but she travels around a lot while Boom has a knack for sound, able to create shockwaves and stuff but he's never around much either so you won't hear much about them. Now moving on. Thanks to my long distance family for reviewing: Strife, Rya, Raeweis, Chaos, UnknownFollower, TNP, and Amicus! And you all made me laugh with your 'called it!'s.**

**Raeweis= True, but it's a good thing it's Sonic's timeline or else they wouldn't be in the story but still… it always is! And you should know who Flame is! She's part of Team Moon (the assassin team) from Shadows Gathering!**

**Strife= Haha, well it's a good thing you helped this family member out. She almost lost it. But, I bet I can do an intro with Strife and Fengari, Flame's not in the story so why can't they be in one? (Don't worry I'll put up the disclaimer for them too).  
Flame "Jealous, are we Fengari?"  
Sangna "Suntan?! That's not even funny! That's just insulting!"**

**Rya= Ahhh! You should read them! They're amazing!  
Anyways, here's what I wanted to say: TAKE **_**THAT**_** Black Doom! You can't stop Katherine the Light Giver for long! Yeah, so anyways ahem, Silver and Blaze are in the story and everything is looking quite interesting…  
Zap "Drama huh? Hmm… sounds interesting."  
Sierra *speechless but eyes are wide in surprise***

**Storm= Yeah, Silver and Blaze are now caught up in the situation! Anyways, thanks for the review and hope to see you soon TNP!**

**UnknownFollower= Thanks for the heads up! So it looks like both of us are going to be bored in school tomorrow (or today when you're reading this…). Anyways, yeah Strife **_**should**_** be updating again soon, he already has the outline on the story done so he isn't giving up on it. Just wondering… what states have you been in? Moving on, sweet! Baseball! Love that game... sometimes. Depends on my mood. Anyways, glad you liked the quote (Personally, I kind of like the one at the end of this chapter a lot more though) and hope to hear from you again soon!**

**Chaos= Yeah… we do have a lot in common how strange, but I suppose it is a good thing too. So, Katherine I could see her dealing with Chaos calling her 'K' and Xsus 'sugar rush kid' (I can see Xsus laughing every time he hears this). So it's Xsus who calls Chaos 'Water Boy' or is it the other way around? Anyways, Light Dimension huh? Well, the other dimension hasn't gotten a name 'till now so I guess it'll work! Moving on, good job Chaos. I hope Therix forgives you (if not then he/she can just be a hater…) as long as you do your part he/she can do whatever he/she wants. Moving on from that, I'll put up a disclaimer for Chaos soon maybe Shadow and Katherine can be involved in it too!  
Katherine *rolls eyes* "Of course I do. And of course I'm older! I was fourteen when I **_**first**_** time traveled to the other dimension Chaos was just created!"**

**Amicus= Someone told that joke on the announcements at my school and I was doing a mental 'Heeey! That's Raeweis' joke!' while scowling. Lol, you had a dream that this story was written in Latin? Wow, you have interesting dreams about my stories/us family reviewers and writers haha. Anyways, it makes even me laugh how everyone's nervous around Sierra and they haven't even seen the ultimate bad guy yet! –oh wait… haha… moving on. So, yeah, Katherine/Sangna is getting bored very interesting… anyways, thanks for the review and hope your posters become liked because of the anti-jokes on them!**

**Disclaimer= I got a recommendation for Team Moon and Chaos (*looks over at Strife and Chaos*) but that one will be done for the next chapters. I wanted to do this one… and I'm going back to Shadows Gathering…  
Xerius the Dimension Jumper *growls as he straightens his cowboy hat with Jet in his grip, who is shoved against the wall* **_**"Write the words down now."**_**  
Jet the Hawk "You can't make me do anything!"  
Xerius *narrows eyes and fingers his gun with a free hand* **_**"I'll blow your head off if you don't. You think you can try to rob Ocean Rider's bank and get away with it without a price, do you?"  
**_**Jet "I think I can!"  
Sheriff Espio the Chameleon *sighs* "Just write it down and we'll let you go, but you better high tail it outta here or Xerius **_**will**_** blow your head off."  
Jet *grumbles and writes with a piece of paper and a pencil: 'Sonic and co. along with the Black Arms belong to SEGA. Everything else belongs to the author'. Shows them the paper when he's done.* "There. You happy?"  
Xerius *tosses Jet to the ground and Jet runs out of the bank before jumping on his horse called 'Extreme Gear' then galloping off. Xerius runs out the door and lifts a fist in Jet's direction as Espio comes out to watch* **_**"And don't come back, you hear me?!"**_

CHAPTER EIGHT= DISCOVERY

Sonic paced nervously outside Tails' workshop while everyone was still asleep inside from the late night that happened yesterday. Sierra watched him pace with an amused look on her face until Sonic finally stopped to look at her.

"What are you looking at?" Sonic asked cautiously.

"You." Sierra snickered and she quickly looked away.

Sonic rolled his eyes and continued pacing. "That… terrorist… that's Katherine? How can that even be possible? What did that dark colored hedgehog do to her?"

Sierra shrugged as she looked at him again. Her icy blue eyes seemed to burn their way through Sonic's emerald green. "Beats me, but like we should really care. We could just let her die by the hand of the Black Arms."

"She's your sister."

"I deny being related to her or anyone else." Sierra sniffed.

Sonic sighed and continued pacing while Sierra positioned herself into a more comfortable position on the small, metal bench outside Tails' workshop. She looked at the spring flowers Tails and Cosmo had planted together a few months earlier in the earthy dirt around them. Bees buzzed in the air lazily as they floated over from flower to flower. The forest scenery spreading out before her was green and peaceful, she couldn't even see the smoke rising from Central City from here.

Sonic stopped and looked at her again. "Do you have any ideas on what to do?"

"No… just a thought though, why are you not scared of me anymore?" Sierra asked questionably.

Sonic swallowed and continued pacing, causing Sierra to raise an eyebrow in amusement. Was he scared of something?

"I-I went on an adventure awhile ago and everyone was there but no one knew who I was… and you were a good guy." Sonic muttered as he paced in circles.

Sierra smirked. "Would this be the place you went when I Chaos Controlled you away from here?"

Sonic stopped and looked at her, remembering she _was_ the one that sent him on the adventure in the first place. He frowned and then nodded after a moment, which made Sierra's smirk turn into a dark smile. "Hmm, sounds like an interesting adventure."

Sonic nodded again while Sierra stood up suddenly, her blue eyes flashing for a moment. "Someone's coming."

Sonic turned to the woods and lifted his fists. "Who?"

"I don't know…! Or care as a matter of fact." Sierra growled.

Sonic found himself grinning at Sierra's dark humor and wiped the grin off his face quickly as Blaze the cat and Silver the hedgehog ran out of the forest.

"Sonic!" Blaze cried, waving her hands in the air.

"Blaze! Silver! What are you guys doing here?!" Sonic yelped as he started running towards them.

Silver slid to a stop and pointed at Sierra. "What's _she_ doing here?!"

"Don't mess with her she's on our side for now!" Sonic said to Silver as he stopped before them. He turned his attention to Blaze. "Now what are you doing here?"

Blaze shook her head. "We've come back from the future because something that has happened here as disrupted the balance in the future!"

Sonic frowned. "That's not good… do you know what it is?"

"Not yet… but I have an idea. You see, we were in Central City earlier this morning… and we happened to run into a girl that looked suspiciously like Shadow…"

Sierra suddenly appeared next to Sonic, scaring the light out of Silver and Blaze. She rolled her eyes and made a hand gesture for them to continue, which Blaze did after a cautious look at Sierra. "So, we were there and we happened to run into a girl that looked a lot like Shadow and when she spoke…"

Blaze trailed off then swallowed nervously but before she could speak again, Silver finished for her. "She sounded _just_ like Katherine."

Sonic frowned and then quickly spilled out his side of the story which involved Katherine's disappearance all the way to Tails' machine locating Katherine's energy in Central City. When he was done, both Silver and Blaze looked nervous about the situation they were now in.

"That has to be Katherine…" Silver finally said. "There's no other explanation."

Sonic, Blaze, and Sierra nodded after a moment of silence.

"We should probably tell the others," Sonic waved a hand towards Tails' workshop. "We need to get Katherine back to normal before things get worse."

Suddenly, Sierra looked to the skies. "Um… you might want to wait for another minute or two, Sonic."

Sonic frowned at her. "Why?"

"We have some company…" Sierra crossed her arms as the people that went over to the other dimension dropped down from the sky, some being carried by friends. The crew contained Xerius, Rouge, Savanna, and a new golden colored hedgehog.

The golden hedgehog laughed. "Well that was fun. You got to teach me how you do that Savanna!" Sierra, Sonic, Blaze, and Silver's eyes widened when they recognized the voice to belong to none other than Maria Robotnik.

Savanna laughed. "Alright, alright! I'll teach you how to fly when I get the chance, Maria!"

Maria smiled and she looked over at Sonic. "Hello friends!"

"M-Maria! What happened to you?" Sonic asked as Maria blushed.

"Well," Maria admitted slowly. "The energy in the other dimension changed my form, I guess Dimension Jumping caused too much white magic to run into my veins so it… transformed me. Anyways, you have got to go to the other dimension sometime soon! It's full of forests, lakes, deserts, everything!"

Savanna chuckled. "She loved it there."

Rouge nodded. "It is quite a sight to see, Xie took me to dinner while we were out at his favorite restaurant since time is different over there. Anyways, did you guys find anything about Katherine? We found nothing."

Xerius' muzzle turned red and that caused Sierra to snicker, which made everyone notice her finally.

"Sierra?!" Savanna pulled out a sword and pointed it to her. "W-what are you doing here?"

"Calm down, fool." Sierra grumbled. "I'm not going to kill you today like I did last time."

There was a stunned moment of silence and Sonic pointed to Savanna as he stared at Sierra. "You killed Savanna?"

Sierra shrugged. "I killed her and Katherine killed my… ally Flame in exchange. Only fair game I suppose but…" Sierra drifted off and her ice blue eyes looked sad suddenly. She looked away from the group as they frowned at her.

Sonic decided pushing Sierra about the subject wasn't the best idea. He turned to the newcomers. "Don't attack her, she's on our side for now. Anyways, so you guys found nothing about Katherine? Nothing at all?"

"Nada," Maria shook her head along with the others.

_"I even searched the Followers of Darkness' territory. Nothing is there either. Windy and Zap are at the universe's largest library to find some answers about something unknown."_ Xerius said to them telepathically.

"So, don't expect help from them anytime soon…" Savanna added sadly.

There was a long moment of silence and Sonic looked back at Tails' workshop behind them. He took a deep breath. "We should probably wake up the others and tell them what's going on."

There was a collection of nods and everyone went into the workshop. "Okay people!" Sonic called when he was inside, opening the door wide. "Up and at 'em! We have to get up and moving!"

Everyone grumbled and complained as they slowly woke up. Xsus fully awoke first though when he saw Xerius. "Xerius! You're here!"

Xerius dipped his head in Xsus' direction while Cream sat up groggily next to Xsus on the couch.

"There's better be a good reason for this, Faker." Shadow growled. From the way he was standing next to the wall, it looked like he hadn't slept at all. His crimson eyes glowed in the early morning light as he glanced over at them.

"Blaze and Silver just came back from Central City…" With that, Sonic quickly explained what happened to Blaze and Silver and when he was done, everyone had new looks of worry and hope in their eyes.

"Also… Shadow?" Silver said cautiously as the others absorbed the information they had just achieved.

Shadow gave Silver a dark look as the silver hedgehog coughed nervously into a hand. "She stole your shoes. They looked exactly like yours."

"She stole my shoes?!" Shadow demanded angrily and his words caused Xerius to flinch.

Everyone else started laughing, finding a moment of happiness in a dreary moment of time. As soon as the laughing was over, Cream sat up straighter on the couch, looking around at the group with a smile on her face. "If that's Katherine then we have to help her, that's what friends are for!"

Xsus grinned. "I'm sure she wants our help! We can't just let her sit around with some creepy monsters!"

Sonic grinned. "Alright team, let's go!" After a moment, he frowned. "H-hey… where did Shadow go?"

Sierra jerked a thumb back at the closed door. "He left while Xsus was talking."

Sonic frowned, wondering how he managed to do that. "We have to catch up to him!"

Everyone ran out of the house, half awake and barely prepared for a battle that was going to happen in Central City.

-XXXXXXXX-

_Sangna's POV_

I crossed my arms as I followed the monster across the city. From the sky above, more monsters fell from it and crashed into burning buildings, some died instantly from the impact and others stumbling out of the rubble like nothing happened.

I raised an eyebrow in amusement. These monsters were obviously crazy to follow Doom... I mean Black Doom's orders.

The monster stopped in a large square where the remains of shopping centers stood all around us. I looked around as I saw monster tearing at each other and grabbing food or items out from the ashes that remained of shops. Some were killing each other just to get what they want.

Suddenly, out of a bright light, a familiar hedgehog appeared in front of me. He looked at me with his three eyes and I felt a mixture of fear and respect course through me. "Doom," I dipped my head to the hedgehog.

"Sangna, how good it is to see you!" Doom said, but the look in his eyes told me he was forcing the words out of his mouth.

"What do you want?" I asked.

Doom waved away the monster that escorted me away and I watched him charge at a fellow monster who was holding a golden necklace that sparkled in the dim morning light and from the fires that surrounded us. Doom turned his attention to me. "Sangna… I need you to give the Chaos Emerald you found to me."

I reached into my pocket and wrapped my hand around the golden emerald. "And what if I say no…?"

"You have no other choice. I have the keys to your memory." Doom reminded me.

For some reason, the images of Silver and Blaze popped into my mind and I tightened my grip on the yellow emerald. "So what?"

Black Doom growled angrily. "Sangna, give me the emerald."

"No."

"I am your father and I demand for the emerald!" Doom roared… which brought an awkward silence down onto the square. Most of the monsters looked over at us, whimpered and ran off but a few stayed to watch how this was going to play out.

I crossed my arms and gave him a funny look, pretending I haven't heard this before. "My father…?"

"Yes. I am your father…"

"Haven't I heard that line from somewhere before…? Like a movie or something?" I became thoughtful but ran into another blasted mental wall, which resulted in me scowling.

Doom growled. "Just give me the emerald. I know where the other six are. The hedgehog known as Sonic has them all, including a Soul Emerald I must have to become positive nothing stops my reign of terror."

"Sonic…?"

"Now give me the emerald!" Doom lunged at her and I side stepped, and then took another surprise step backwards. _This_ was how a father was supposed to act to their child? Stealing their things, telling them confusing riddles, not giving their memory back, and worst of all: attacking them…?!

"What kind of dad are you?!" I demanded, lifting my hands up angrily.

"GIVE ME THE EMERALD!" Black Doom shrieked as he lifted a hand out to me and blasted me with dark energy. The blast hit me and I flew backwards and crashed into the ground, sliding to a stop not too far away. I struggled to my feet and looked at my fearfully hands. What could I do? Could I do moves like that? What I did yesterday was instinctive; none of it was on purpose.

Doom charged at me again, his fists glowing with colorful energy. I could only stand and stare as he lifted a fist high above my head but got blasted by the sidelines by a blast of energy. Doom slid away and I looked over, seeing a black hedgehog with red streaks… the same one from yesterday. The rest of monsters that were standing around saw him let out shrieks before running off.

"Katherine!" He called to me. "RUN!"

I wanted to yell at him, the name was _Sangna_ thank you very much. I didn't know what the name Katherine was supposed to mean to these people but for some reason, I listened to him and started running away, only to be tackled by Doom.

"Give… me… the emerald!" Doom hissed as he tried throwing punches at me.

"Never!" I growled, finding myself feeling like an idiot for being overdramatic.

"Get off of her!" the black hedgehog tackled Doom and the two rolled away. I glanced over and saw a familiar white emerald on the ground by my feet and picked it up, realizing it was the one from yesterday. I looked at it carefully, feeling a familiar… attachment to it? Was that even possible?

"Go!" the black hedgehog's voice cried out and I looked up, seeing he had managed to keep Doom pinned down underneath him. His crimson eyes glowed with rage and worry. "Get out of here! Teleport, do anything!"

I lifted the emerald outwards, like it was a dangerous bomb while thinking of something to do. "What should I do with it?" I yelled to the hedgehog. All the moves I did yesterday were out of instinct! Now that I wasn't furious at someone I couldn't just _do_ things anymore!

The hedgehog flinched at my words. "Go. Now! Use Chaos Control!"

Chaos… Control…? What was that? I then suddenly remembered how I got down to this planet anyways, Doom had _said_ Chaos Control and I ended up unconscious at this place. Did it work both ways? Only one way to find out, I lifted the emerald into the air. "CHAOS CONTROL!" I yelled, closing my eyes tightly.

A sudden blast of energy left me and I felt like falling over as a sudden warm light surrounded me. Then, the warm light faded and I opened my eyes, finding myself in a dark room… but before I could get a good view of my surroundings, I fell to the ground from exhaustion and passed out cold.

But one last thought passed through my mind before I was out… maybe it was a word, a name perhaps, and it echoed throughout my mind as the white emerald that the black hedgehog said belonged to his sister laid in my hand, glowing slightly.

_Shadow…_

**Quote of the Story: "Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten." –David Ogden Stiers**

**Windy *claps hands* "Nice job."**

**Me *smiles* "Thanks Windy, anyways, please do leave a review and I'll see you when the next chapter comes around!**


	9. Let's Finish What We've Started

"**Howdy!"**

"_**Xsus… get away from the computer and give me my hat back."**_

"**Aw…"**

**Xerius *puts cowboy hat back on* **_**"Hi. So the author isn't around at this current moment so Xsus and I were destined to post the story. She wants to say thanks to her adopted reviewing family for reviewing…"**_

**Xsus "Reviewing family?! We gotta family?!"**

**Xerius *face palm* **_**"I'll explain it to you later Xsus. So, thanks to Strife, Chaos, Maraya, Storm, Amicus, and raeweis."**_

**Strife= LOL glad you liked that one part, it entertained me while writing it. A horse named Extreme Gear… of course Jet would do that. It was brilliant.  
Flame *starts laughing* "Well that's sad."  
Me "You can say that again…"  
Flame *scowls* "And just what are **_**you**_** doing here?"  
Me "Same can be said about you."  
Flame *raises eyebrow*  
Sangna "Songbird? Humph." *glares***

**Chaos= Wales?! Gah… when I get outta the states… *shakes head slowly* anyways, I just remembered that you offered to have all the other Dimension Jumpers remember who Chaos was and I can do that don't worry! Also, I'll put the Chaos disclaimer in the next chapter (Strife did ask first…) Yeah dimensions are confusing. I've never wrote about them before coming on this sight and it's making my head spin haha! Ohana means family huh…? Now I know what to call the family reviewers…  
Katherine "Oh come on, all your rings? Oh well… we already know who the winner's going to be anyways."  
Sierra *sticks nose in the air* "Totally fine."  
Xsus *hugs Nightshade* "Aw! Can I keep him Water Boy?"**

**Rya= Ahead on the story I see! In this one, it explains a bit of why Black Doom has done everything he has done so far it does a better job in the next chapter. Glad you like the SonicxSierra, I'm kinda enjoying it too here. And, TAKE THAT DOOM! (haha dissed him again!) I don't know about Sonic Riders. That was actually the first Sonic game that opened my eyes to the Sonic the hedgehog world haha then it was Sonic X and so on... oh! And I have a favor to ask of you, friend. My little sister (real sister) has put up her first story under the Legend of Zelda section and since you're writing in that category I'm asking you and if you leave a review I know it will help her out lots. Besides its really good so far- I had to proof read it so if you could help her out that'd be great. Her penname is LittleSilverStream and the story's called: Legend of Zelda: Goddess of Pride. Thanks Rya! ^^ -also let her know I sent you over so she'll be all like: "*insert my real name here*…!"  
Windy *shrugs with big eyes* "I-I don't know, this is new for me too." *smirks* "Maybe we should poke her."  
Zap "No. BlackSandHeart does though… if I acted then they'd have to put me on the 'you're terrible' list."**

**Storm= Yeah! And now for another action packed chapter! Thanks for the review!**

**Amicus= What's the wacky theory? Let me know! Also, glad you liked the disclaimers :D Glad this story is coming up to be a favorite and Day of the Dead was fun to write so I can see that's why it's a favorite. Yes! Someone saw my Star Wars reference…! And the shoes part was pretty awesome. Also, there's an un-joke that you might want to check out I put it under raeweis' so you're going to have to read what I wrote for her if you want to see it!  
Sierra *smirks while bowing* "Why thank you."**

**Raeweis= RAEWEIS! I WENT ONLINE AND SAW THE BEST/HORRIBLE UN-JOKE EVAH!  
Knock Knock  
Who's there?  
The Police, your son is dead.  
…anyways… glad you liked the Star Wars reference and yes for Katherine/Sangna getting her memory back!**

**DISCLAIMER= Strife *looks around frantically*  
Fengari *flips page of his rulebook*  
Flame *appears out of the darkness with sword raised* "Haha! Got you!"  
Strife *disappears and Flame misses but slices a tree in half* "Aw come on! That's cheating!"  
Fengari *wags a finger* "No it's not. It wasn't in the rulebook."  
Flame *scowls then looks at the tree stump in surprise* "Hey…! Check this out!"  
*Strife appears out of the darkness to see and Fengari stands up and walks over. All three look at the bark and see the words 'Sonic and co. belong to SEGA. Flame, the other Dimension Jumpers, and the story belongs to BlackSandHeart and Strife and Fengari belong to Strife the Dark 152. The mention of the character 'Chaos' belongs to Chaosthehedgehog.'*  
Strife *frowns* "What is that supposed to mean?"  
Flame *growls* "I don't belong to anybody!"  
Fengari *looks around nervously* "This is weird… we should probably get out of here before something else random appears out of nowhere."  
Xsus *randomly runs through the forest scene * "I found some ICE CREAM guys!"  
Flame and Strife *face palms*  
Fengari "…like that."**

CHAPTER NINE= "LET'S FINISH WHAT WE STARTED."

"How… how dare you!" Black Doom growled as he struggled to his feet. He glared at the ebony hedgehog. "You are still the pest you are last time we met! You'd dare attack me again?!"

"You attacked my sister! It was only fair! She's not even related to her yet you call her your daughter?!" The ebony hedgehog, or more famously known as, Shadow the hedgehog, growled.

"She's mine now! She doesn't even know who you are!" Doom chuckled.

Shadow growled angrily. "What did you do to her?!"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Doom sneered. He struggled to his feet and gave a suspicious look at Shadow. "But… if you must know I inserted my blood into her system. Since that kind of blood is a parasite to _normal_ Mobian's blood it's slowly killing off her Mobian blood and turning her into one of us! Her memory loss is only a side effect!"

Shadow growled angrily. "How dare you!"

Black Doom let out an evil laugh and while he laughed, monsters appeared over the rooftops and looked down at Shadow with a hungry light in their eyes. Black Doom turned towards his minions. "My slaves! Kill and eat the sacrifice I give unto you!" With that, he waved a hand at Shadow.

The monsters let out roars of satisfaction and approval then stumbled over each other, charging at Shadow as he lifted his fists, eyes flashing angrily.

The first monster that reached Shadow was blasted away and the ebony hedgehog kept the process going, somehow managing to hold off twenty monsters at once but every monster he knocked down more took their place.

Shadow growled to himself angrily as he punched another monster. _I can't keep this up forever! I'm going to tire out eventually…_

"SHADOW!" A voice cried and Shadow, Black Doom, and the monsters froze and looked on the rooftops. Black Doom growled when he recognized the sight to be Sonic the hedgehog and his small team.

Without saying anything to the blue blur, Black Doom waved a hand at them and some of the monsters charged towards the building, as soon as they reached the bottom of the building, they started crawling or flying up it in unnatural ways.

Sierra jumped forward. "Got this!" She pointed downwards and shot a blast of energy downwards at a monster climbing up the building. She blasted it into black liquid and a golden necklace flew into the air… and landed in Xerius' outstretched hand.

Xerius turned to Rouge and handed her the necklace. _"This necklace is almost as cute as you are."_

"Oh Xie! It's beautiful!" Rouge's eyes glowed in the necklace's light that it radiated onto her face as she took the necklace.

Xerius smiled and then turned to the others. Sonic led the way off the building and the large group charged into the battle below to help Shadow out.

Shadow smirked as the some of the monsters started running away. Black Doom turned to Shadow and lunged at him, tackled the black hedgehog, and both of them rolled off. "You're ruining… everything again!" Black Doom growled to his son.

Shadow sneered at Black Doom. "I'll stop you no matter what you say or do! This planet's fate belongs to me!"

Black Doom threw a punch at Shadow, who dodged it easily and both jumped to their feet.

Shadow lifted a fist. "Let's finish what we started, Black Doom!"

Black Doom lifted his fists. "Very well, Shadow the hedgehog! Prepare to die!"

The two jumped at each other and started throwing attacks at each other while the rest of the team charged into battle.

Sonic spin attacked on an enemy while the fight went on around him. He glanced back and noticed Xerius and Espio working together taking down a monster that was twice their size. Espio would distract it by appearing and disappearing while Xerius would lash out with his claws when the enemy became distracted.

Sonic laughed quietly to himself and then suddenly got yanked backwards. The hedgehog let out a surprised yelp as a giant monster smashed its fist into the ground right where Sonic was standing moments ago. The monster let out a roar and Sonic looked back at his savior… who happened to be Sierra.

"Buzz off!" Sierra growled at the monster. "Only I get to kill him!"

Sonic showed the girl his trademark grin. "Thanks, Sierra."

Sierra glared at him. "Just because I saved your life doesn't change anything about the battle, Sonic.

"Of course not." Sonic chuckled.

Sierra pulled out her sword and growled as the monster took a step closer. "You wouldn't mind if… you… helped… me… with taking out this monster, would you?"

Sonic stared at Sierra until the girl knocked him on the side of the head angrily.

Sonic blinked, shook his head, and then flashed Sierra a smile. "Duh… sure!"

Sierra smirked. "You're cute when you stutter like that." She then turned and charged at the monster while Sonic grinned and ran after her.

Tails watched Sonic and Sierra charge before slowly shaking his head in disbelief. "That… was weird… Cosmo!" He yelped as he saw the girl fall over as she was tackled by a large, misshapen bat thing. The kitsune charged and kicked the bat off of Cosmo then helped her to her feet. "Are you okay, Cosmo?"

Cosmo brushed invisible dust off her dress and Tails noticed her face was red with embarrassment. "I-I'm fine Tails, thanks."

"Good," Tails smiled at her. "As long as you're okay that's all that matters to me, Cosmo!"

"Thanks Tails," Cosmo's face turned redder. She turned her attention to the battle before them. "But we must help out the others first!"

Tails nodded. "Of course!"

The two started charging into battle but stopped for a moment as they saw Xsus tackle a bat that had tried swooping down and taking them out from behind. Xsus growled at the monster. "You can't hurt my friends!" He barked at the bat as they spun through the air.

The bat let out a screech and somehow managed to push Xsus off of him, who fell to the ground with a thud, bending down on one knee before standing. He noticed the bat swoop around and charge at him, screeching triumphantly.

Xsus lifted his fists but a large chunk of earth glowing green shot by and knocked the bat out of the sky. Xsus flashed a smile over to Silver the hedgehog, whose palms had barely stopped glowing green. "Thanks Silver!"

"No problem, Xsus!" Silver flashed a smile and then ran off to help Blaze the cat.

Blaze watched him run up and looked around. "I don't see Katherine anywhere! Where do you think she is?"

Silver frowned and also looked around and realized the problem. Katherine was nowhere in sight. Where did she go? Did Shadow take her away somewhere? Did she never arrive here? Or even worse… did Black Doom kill her?

-XXXXXXXX-

_Sangna's POV_

I opened my eyes slowly, feeling lightheaded and weak. The emerald was still in my hands and I was lying flat on my stomach. I sat up slowly and put a hand to my head, looking around with a confused look on my face.

"Hello?!" I called but my voice echoed off a million walls. There was a faint light coming from the window to my left and I stumbled towards it, and then gasped at a sight of a slowly spinning green, blue planet below me. I put my hand on the thick glass and stared down at the planet, feeling my eyes slowly tearing up.

I looked around the room, turning my attention away from the beautiful scenery, seeing a punching bag in the corner of the room along with four beanbag chairs that had a lair of dust on top of them, like they hadn't been used in years. Even my footprints left marks in the dust that covered the ground.

I put my hands to my lips. "Hello!"

My voice echoed off the walls again and only brought a ringing silence to my ears.

There was something about this place that wanted me to start crying. I wanted to fall to the ground and scream a few names that weren't revealing themselves to me. I dropped to my knees and looked around, my ears twitching for a sound.

What was going on here? I looked at the emerald in my hand and tightened my grip around it before standing up again. I started to walk towards an ancient looking automatic door when a blue curtain caught my eye next to it, behind the punching bag. I frowned as I looked at it and then slowly moved towards it, my footsteps echoing off the walls.

I put my hand on the blue velvet and looked up at the top of the curtain, seeing it was on a railing so it opened and closed like a shower curtain. I started opening the curtain when a sudden light flashed through my mind.

I let go of the velvet and frowned, looking at the fabric suspiciously again. What… was that about?

I cautiously grabbed onto the fabric again and waited for a moment, but nothing happened. I looked back at the planet and then at the fabric in my hands.

Then, a voice echoed through the room I was in. I spun around and looked around wildly, trying to locate the voice but I didn't see anyone or anything, but the voice continued, slowly growing louder and clearer but sounding like it wasn't there at all at the same time.

_"Shadow! No fair!"_ The voice laughed.

_"Come on, sis, you can't just expect me to let you getaway that easily!"_ Another voice said.

"Who's there?!" I called out, looking around wildly. The voices made my fur stand on end and I lifted my fists angrily. However, no matter what I couldn't find or see anyone around me in this room.

_"Hey… where's Maria?"_ The first voice asked after I cried out.

_"Maybe she's in the kitchen."_ The second voice said thoughtfully. _"With Chaos."_

"Show yourselves!" I growled. "Stop being cowards!"

The sound of laughter echoed in the room and that made me clench my hands into fists. "Who are you?!"

_"Alright," _The first voice said. _"Let's go find them."_

There was the sound of fading footsteps and I looked around frantically. "Wait… wait! No! Don't go… where are you going? Who are you?!"

Silence reached my ears again and I felt heart pounding in my chest. I looked around fearfully and then looked at the velvet curtain behind me. I reached out and grabbed hold of it again, ready to throw it aside once more.

Suddenly, light flashed before my eyes again and this time I didn't let go. I focused on the light and felt sudden, blinding pain.

I let out a cry and dropped to the floor as the light slowly transformed itself into a vision.

In the vision I saw three figures. Unlike the last time this happened, they cleared themselves up revealing one to be a younger version of the black hedgehog who had told me to run, a tall girl with blond hair and blue eyes, and a cat with ears that stretched a foot above her head.

The black hedgehog shook his head while the cat painted the wall with a palette in one hand and a thick paintbrush in her other hand. "You're a terrible artist, Katherine."

"Don't ruin my hopes and dreams for the future, Shadow." The girl named Katherine scolded. "I may not be a good artist but I _do_ happen to be a good story teller!"

The girl sighed. "What am I ever going to do with the two of you?"

Katherine shrugged as she flicked her paintbrush in a random direction. "You could just deal with us…"

"Guys!" A fourth voice from somewhere behind my line of vision said, causing Shadow, the girl, and Katherine to look back in the voice's direction in surprise. "The professor's coming! Quick, hide it!"

"Shadow!" Katherine turned to the hedgehog as he teleported to the other side of the room, grabbing hold of a blue velvet curtain and pushing it towards Katherine. Katherine caught it and then ran the rest of the way down poll the curtain sat upon, covering up the artwork that covered the wall.

Suddenly, the door opened and an obese man walked in, looking like he was the right age to be a grandfather. He stroked his bushy mustache and spoke in a ragged, old voice. "Shadow, Maria, Katherine, Chaos, all of you need to come and eat dinner."

The girl who's named had to be Maria smiled. "Alright Grandfather! We're coming!" She followed the large man out of the room and Katherine and Shadow started arguing with a second hedgehog whose image blurred itself out.

Then… the vision faded and I was still holding the soft blue fabric in my fingers and staring into oblivion and I sat on the ground, letting go of the fabric. I took a deep breath, then sneezed because of the dust and looked back towards the spinning blue planet behind me out the window.

As I looked at the swirling planet below the building I was on, questions spun in my mind. What happened here? Why did it look like it was abandoned? Who was that second hedgehog?

And even more importantly:

Where am I?

**Quote of the Story: "A good sacrifice is the one that is not necessarily sound but leaves your opponent dazed and confused." –Nigel Short**

**Xerius **_**"There. Hope you liked it. Please do review or…"**_

**Xsus "Or else bugs will crawl into your brains at night and eat them all!"**

**Xerius *sighs* **_**"Thanks Xsus. You heard the boy, please leave a review- even if you're not part of the Reviewing Family. The author enjoys all reviews."**_


	10. Paintings On the Wall

***Waves* "Hello readers! Good to have you reading the story still and welcome to chapter ten of The Return! Everything (almost) is going to be explained in this chapter…**

**Zap *dryly* "We want to thank the members of the reviewing family (or as Chaos calls it: ****ohana or as Strife puts it: The Crazy writing family****) before moving onto the story, since they're the only ones who reviewed for the last chapter: Strife, UnknownFollower, Storm, Rya, Chaos, raeweis, and Amicus.**

**Strife= Lol yeah, I knew you'd like the disclaimer. Anyways, so yeah, so far the story's turning out to be really good!  
Flame *looks amused* "This is hilarious to watch."  
Me "Goes both ways, Flames."  
Flame "Oh you're hilarious."  
Me "Yes I am."  
Flame *scowls* "Did you not hear my sarcasm?"  
Me "Yes, I just chose to ignore it."  
Flame *rolls her eyes*  
Sangna "Humph, I wasn't trying to!"**

**UnknownFollower= Of course you are! You've been tagging after me since Day of the Dead how could I **_**not **_**consider you as part of us crazy writers family? Anyways, yeah Chaos' story is revealed later on in the story and that SonicxSierra part I'm saving up for later… as usual! Oh BTW, how was school? Juuust wondering.**

**Storm= Yeah! Flashback moments! I actually love writing those to see how many people go 'I remember that…!' Anyways, so yeah Sonic and Sierra have teamed up, yes! Thanks for the review Nomad!**

**Rya= Thanks so much for helping out my sis she appreciates it. Anyways, yeah I'm in a drama class but we haven't done anything serious mostly improve and a few little skits here and there but they're all fun nonetheless! Who were you in your play? Anyways, you're right. The Dimension Jumpers aren't Mobians they actually most don't wear any gloves, except Katherine. Also, the reason why Shadow hasn't been struggling under the effects is that he's didn't change shape by light or dark magic. He was born a hedgehog. Yeah, that's what the liquid is, it's like the Black Arms blood. Anyways, more is explained in this chapter but yeah… But either way, all your guesses are so good! You'll see what I mean when I finish :) So, I guess at the end this means you're writing an OC story! I'll read it! And I'll get the other family members to read it too (unless you beg difference)!  
Zap "You've been holding out a story for me…?"  
Windy *looks thoughtful*  
Sierra *blinks and takes the cupcakes like they're made of explosives* "You poisoned these didn't you?"**

**Chaos= Glad your OC is in it! He'll pop up more later… anyways, the Disclaimer has him in it for this round and so… yeah. Don't forget about UnknownFollower! He's in this too! Brimingham huh? Sounds like an interesting place… I've heard of it but obviously I've never been *weak laugh* hope you don't walk your feet off!  
Xsus *pouts as he hugs Nightshade* "Aw come on! She's so adorable…!"**

**Raeweis= I know… I laughed too when my friend showed me it in English yesterday and everyone gave me weird looks. Haha, yeah Shadow- I almost swear it- always manages to survive at the last possible moment! So anyways, hope you like this chapter just as well, see ya (read ya…?) around friend and thanks for the review!**

**Amicus= Lol glad you liked the disclaimer, they're fun to write. Got any recommendations for me? I'm out now. Yeah, it had to be painful… she even passed out so it had to prove it was painful in the first place. Eh, for those who are reading the reviews *shrugs* ah, oh well! I just hope it excites them into reading it! –right? Ooo Latin ending, nice touch ^^  
Now for your theory= Hmmm… interesting idea actually. Although, even if it is in alternative dimension Strife and I kind of planned out how Flame comes back to life in a different way (I'd give you more but it'd ruin his story and I promised not to tell!). But that is quite an interesting and highly brilliant idea… hmmm…  
Zap "I pop up later on… humph…" *scowls*  
Silver "Haha! Take that Zap!"  
Sangna *dark grin* "Heh, still first."  
Sonic *laughs* "I'll catch up with you, Katherine. Just you wait!"  
Sangna *rolls her eyes***

**DISCLAIMER= Katherine *takes a deep breath of the salty seawater that was in the air all around her and glanced over at Chaos and Shadow who are trudging through the sand next to her.* "Hmmm… well today seems like a good day for a walk on the beach."  
Chaos *Grins* "You can say that again!"  
Shadow "Humph, I'd prefer if it was sundown. The sun isn't as blinding then."  
Chaos *glances over a rock* "Hey… check this out!"  
Shadow and Katherine *stop and look at the rock as Chaos runs up to inspect it* "Um… hmmm… this is weird."  
Shadow *crosses his arms* "Well? What does it say?"  
Chaos "The most outrageous thing I have ever seen: 'Sonic and co belong to'…is that SEGA? What kind of… okay… anyways, 'belong to SEGA while the story, the plot, and the'… Dimension Jumpers? Huh? Moving on, 'and the Dimension Jumpers belong to BlackSandHeart. Chaos the hedgehog'… hey that's me! 'Belongs to Chaosthehedgehog'. That's it."  
Katherine *frowns* "What the heck is that supposed to mean?"  
Shadow *shrugs and starts walking again* "We may never know."  
Chaos *grins as he and Katherine walk after Shadow* "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop? The world may never know!"  
Katherine *sighs* "Chaos…!"**

CHAPTER TEN= PAINTINGS ON THE WALL

_Shadow's POV_

I threw his fist into the jaw of Black Doom and watched the three eyed hedgehog fly backwards. He growled angrily as he struggled to his feet and I lifted my fists angrily. "How did you become a hedgehog, anyways?" I growled. The question had been spinning in my mind for awhile now. He wasn't the creepy, taller than man with giant horns sticking out of his head kind of monster anymore.

My eyes narrowed as Doom started laughing. "Wouldn't you like to know? Very well, Shadow the hedgehog. If you must know then you must first understand that after you defeated me last time, you rendered my old body useless and I died from receiving no help.

"Then, a day well known to you called the Day of the Dead came around and during those days it brought the Black Comet back and everyone that was killed in the fight against you, including me. However, my old body was still practically useless to use since you had beaten me badly. Therefore, the Black Arms had to do something very similar to what they did to Katherine to survive…" He lifted up a glowing black emerald with a green mass in the center of it. "A Soul Emerald."

"WHAT?!" I took a step back and as I did so, I barely avoided Xerius as he punched a member of the Black Arms clear to the other side of the battlefield. I lifted a fist by my face after glancing over at Xerius as the silent warrior spun around to take on another enemy with Espio next to him, barely looking winded.

"You heard me." Black Doom chuckled. "These emeralds are the one thing that makes people immortal, everyone thought that when Katherine went through the time warp when she traveled back to her dimension, so she stayed young. But it was truly her emerald that is keeping her young for this long… although, he who holds the emerald controls the owner."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I growled. My mind was whirling of the new information I just received. Katherine? Immortal? All because of Gerald's blasted experiment so many years ago? Impossible.

"It means, when I get a hold of Katherine's emerald I can control her to do whatever I want!" Black Doom chuckled. "She will never regain her memories and even better- she'll forever serve my side with the Black Arms!"

"Never!" I growled as I lunged towards the insane hedgehog and punched Black Doom hard enough in the gut that he coughed out black liquid. I stepped back for a moment and both of us stared at each other with furious crimson eyes.

"I hate you." I hissed. "You used my sister; you're the one that put Black Arm blood inside her DNA so it transformed her completely didn't you?"

"Finally catching on… eh… Shadow?" Black Doom chuckled as he glared at me as he bent over. "Yes. It was I that sent the bat that attacked her, gave her Black Arms blood. She should be honored for having such a thing happen! Only the strongest have the honor of receiving Black Arms blood in their system."

I stepped forward and picked up Black Doom in my arms so his feet floated uselessly off the ground. "An honor?!" I spat, "How is it an honor to know that you have the blood of murders? Killers? No, you wouldn't know because that's all you _ever_ do."

"Shadow, Shadow, Shadow," Black Doom chuckled. "You have nothing to say about the subject, Katherine can't even remember who you are!"

"I'll try then. I'll do anything it takes." I said angrily. "Family is supposed to stick together through the rough times, unlike you, _father_. You ruin family relationships. The entire reason you're here is to get revenge on me for what I did to you so you decided to target my sister. You inserted Black Arms blood in her and didn't care if the results killed her or not! When she awoke with amnesia you decided to use that against me and have her gather the Chaos Emeralds so I couldn't beat you again so you could rule the world without a fight!"

Black Doom let out a laugh as he hung uselessly in my death grip. "Finally, looks like you've finally learned something from last time! You know only half of my plans now."

I let out an angry roar and threw him across the battlefield. My hands were shaking from uncontrollable rage as I finally figured out what his evil plans were. It was his entire fault. His entire fault this was happening.

Doom struggled to his feet and let out another laugh. "I hope to see you again, Shadow the hedgehog, dead. Black Arms! To me!" With that, he started glowing with Chaos Energy and let out a roar. "CHAOS CONTROL!" And he vanished with the rest of his army.

"No!" I jumped forward but it was too late, I was all alone with only my team members in the battle field and black liquid of the remains of other monsters. I fell to my knees and stared silently at the spot Black Doom was at until Sonic walked up to me.

"Hey… Shadow… are you okay?" Sonic asked.

I looked at him, and the hedgehog flinched slightly, he could see the death look in my eyes. I took a deep breath and looked at the spot Black Doom was at, saying nothing for a moment. When everyone had gathered around, I spoke. "This is his entire fault."

"How is it Black Doom's fault? I mean, I know he's part of the evil Black Arms race thing but how can all of this be caused by him?" Rouge asked, putting a hand on her hip.

"He's the one that put Black Arms blood into Katherine's arm, switching her form and giving her amnesia." I said seriously. "The blood caused Katherine's appearance to change and the amnesia."

There was a moment of silence after my words as everyone finally realized what just happened.

"But… where is Katherine?" Xsus asked. As he spoke, one of his large, flat ears tipped to the side in a questioning look.

I stood up and stared at the ground. "I'll get her. All of you wait here." With that, I concentrated on a familiar image and Chaos Controlled away from them, leaving them with the new information and the shock of what was going on.

-XXXXXXXX-

_Sangna's POV_

I took a deep breath as I stood before the curtains. Well, one way to find out the answers to all my questions was to remove this curtain. I grabbed the velvet and was surprised not to have a light flash through my eyes again.

I looked around nervously but no voices came to me either, making me sigh in relief. I grabbed the curtain and tossed it aside and listened to the faint ringing sound it made as the rings that held the curtain as it flew down the poll. As the curtain flew off, I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow to the paintings before me.

There had to be hundreds of them, all of them of different things.

I noticed one where neat words wrote: family was written and there showed a picture of the black hedgehog, the long eared cat, the human girl, another hedgehog that was red with black stripes in his fur, and about three professors standing around them. Subconsciously, I reached out and brushed my hand on the sad painting that looked like an eight year old had struggled drawing it.

I laugh quietly for reasons I don't know as I brush my hand against the painting. I looked to the left where I saw three letters in blood red paint stating: GUN. I frowned at the words and looked around at the rest of the drawings. Some were the most random things I have seen yet, like a sad picture of a bear trying to dance. Others made me wonder why the author drew that, like the glowing golden wings attached to a human girl.

I brushed my hand against the paintings and watched some of the paint peel off as soon as my hands touched it. I reared back as I ruined part of the dancing bear picture and frowned at the brown paint on my hands.

Tears suddenly welled up in my eyes as a bunch of unknown emotions racked through my brain. I wiped the tears away in confusion and stepped away from the paintings. I needed to get off this… contraption somehow and get back to the surface of the Earth... if I even was in outer space.

I turned towards the metal door and cautiously walked towards it until I heard someone call out a name to me. _"Sangna…!"_

I turned around in surprise and saw a glowing figure standing before me. In fact, a _bunch_ of glowing figures. I took a startled step back. "W-who w-what are you?!"

The first figure I saw took a step forward and I recognized it as a glowing image of Silver the hedgehog. My eyes widened and then narrowed as I took a cautious step back. "W-what are you doing here, Silver?"

The other figures moved here and there and I recognized some of them, others I had never seen before. Some moved here and there, the cat I recognized as Xsus in Central City put a rabbit on his shoulders and the two started running around the room, followed by a small, blue Chao. Others talked among themselves like they couldn't even see me.

Silver laughed, his voice sounding far away yet right in front of me. _"I'm not really here… I'm just a memory you forgot about!"_

"Wait, I knew you?!"

_"Of course!"_ Silver grinned. _"We were good friends!"_

"F-friends…?"

_"Yeah, friends… you were known as Katherine back then and had big ears…"_ Silver put his hands behind his jetted silver colored quills to prove his point. He showed a cocky grin at me while I scowled, trying to put the pieces together.

"So… I was… Katherine?"

Silver walked towards me, his hands still trying to be Katherine's ears. _"Yep… but you don't remember that. Your memories started disappearing after Black Doom kidnapped you and by the time you woke up they were completely gone. Black Doom used that to his advantage to have you go against us, your real friends."_

"I'm… Katherine…" I whispered to myself, staring at the ground silently. The name brought up millions of emotions: happiness, misery, hope, and many others. I couldn't believe it. That long eared cat I saw in my vision, the person that everyone talked about, I was her.

Silver stopped less than three feet away from me. I looked up at him fearfully. "Silver… is there a way to return my memories? Bring them back to the way they were?"

The hedgehog laughed at my words and behind him, I watched the images of the black hedgehog named Shadow and Sonic start fighting each other behind him. A grin was on Sonic's face and a determined look was on Shadow's.

Silver took my hand and forced me to look back at him. _"Katherine, I'm not you. I'm just a memory. But if anyone can get their memory back without doing it the hard way… it's you."_

I found myself blushing as Silver leaned forward. _"Be careful Katherine… and don't worry. I'll see you again in person real soon… besides, if I'm just a memory… I guess I can do this…"_ He then kissed me.

I found my eyes widening and a feeling of warm, peaceful light wash over me as another image passed through my mind. But this time, it didn't hurt and the image was clearer then fresh lake water.

There was Katherine… no, me… lying on a stunned Silver's shoulder as we sat in front of the body of Shadow the hedgehog. I was crying into his shoulder and Silver was gently brushing my hair, with a sad but thoughtful look on his face.

Then… the image faded away and I found myself alone in the room that showed the view of the Earth, the glowing images of the others weren't there anymore. I fell to my knees and stared out the window before tears appeared in the corners of my eyes and dripped down my face.

"I… I…!" I said, trying to swallow the tears that came for reasons unknown. "I don't know what's happening to… me! It's not fair… I can't remember anything and all these people claim to know me…! W-what's going on…!"

I put my head in my hands and started sobbing. Hot tears dripped from my eyes onto my gloved hands. No one was there to hear my tears… except the old memories and maybe the creepy voices that came from who knows where.

Then, there was the sound of quiet footsteps. I stopped crying and looked back at the door in surprise, wiping away tears with the back of my hand as the automatic doors opened, in the doorway stood a tall, black hedgehog with red stripes running down his quills. Tears dripped down my face again as I recognized the boy from the image. "S-shadow!"

Shadow looked at me and walked cautiously towards me. He bent down and looked at me in the eye with his sad crimson eyes. "You don't know who I am… do you, Katherine?"

I sniffed. "Not much…"

"Then I guess you wouldn't know that you're my sister now would you?"

"I'm your sister…?!" I wiped the tears away again and wrapped my arms around my knees, pulling them close to my chest. "Don't lie to me, Shadow. All I know is your name and that I don't know who I am anymore."

Shadow grabbed my arm and pulled me into a hug. I was surprised by his sudden kindness and didn't know what to say. "Shadow…? Are you okay…?"

Shadow said nothing, holding me tight in his strange embrace and I blinked slowly in surprise.

"Um…" I returned the hug, feeling unsure of what to do. "Shadow… there's no need to be like this. I'm just a confused person. Maybe I'm not your sister after all."

Shadow looked up out the window silent tears dripped down his face as he hugged me tightly. "No… you're obviously Katherine. Only Katherine would have mercy on the ones who act like a little girl."

"But I don't remember anything! And you're not acting like a little girl."

"I didn't either for a long time."

"You… didn't?"

"Yes, so I know how you're feeling. You're reminding me of myself right now. Confused, angry, letting lies lead you in the wrong direction." Shadow said seriously. "But remember, you can choose where you want to go and let life lead you in the direction you want to go."

I didn't know what to say. I lay silently in Shadow… I suppose my brother's… arms and we both looked out the window of this strange place.

**Quote of the Story: "I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, / Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. / Leaving behind nights of terror and fear / I rise" –Still I Rise, by Maya Angelou**

**Another chapter done! Stay tuned for the next chapter! Also, I **_**might**_** not update tomorrow. MIGHT. The reason why would be because I'm doing a school activity tomorrow and it's going to end late so idk if I'll be able to get to ya!**

**Either way, please leave a review and I'll see ya all when the next chapter comes up!**


	11. Memories Forgotten

**Hi people! Welcome to the next chapter of the story and thanks for staying this long with me people!**

**Anyways, thanks goes to my Crazy Writing Family= Storm, Rya, Chaos, Amicus, UnknownFollower, and Strife. Thank you guys so much!**

**Storm= Katherine *blinks slowly* "Calm down Braelyn!"  
Thanks! I had lots of fun it was like a picnic thing and I just sat around in the grass singing along to songs and putting up a tent... anyways yeah. So yeah, Katherine's immortal now, and yeah in ways, yes it is similar to the Aero and Robyn situation... hmmm...**

**Rya= Pssh! Don't stop guessing things! They make me rethink my stories and that's a good thing. Yeah, my sister's nice- most of the time but isn't that the way all sisters are XD? Oh that's so cool. I can't wait to start doing real plays this year though! I hope you find time to write your stories some more, you're really good at them! Lol and Black Doom told Shadow all his plans cause he's a bad guy! All bad guys do that eventually... haha.  
Zap "Ah yes! I remember! I did tell the story of Lady Jane though, remember? Hmm... that's not technically a story though..."  
Sierra *shrugs* "Okay," *eats a cupcake slowly while giving you a look.***

**Chaos= Glad you liked the disclaimer! And I LOVE that song! Yeah, yeah, I wasn't sure if I'd make it past chapter one or even finish the story yet her we are *laughs*. Hey! I'm taking Spanish too! It's kind of annoying though. The teachers one of those: either you learn this or you're going to fail miserably.  
Katherine *jumps in front of Chaos and lifts a fist at Jewel, narrows eyes angrily* "And just who do you think you are?!"**

**Amicus= Huh, Windy try out a disclaimer out? Lol, okay I'll try it out! Glad you liked the chapter, truthfully I was doing a secret fist pump "Yessss!" When Silver kissed Katherine. And yes. Black Doom is a failure of a father *scowls*. For your question, yes. Black Doom's DNA is the entire cause of the red stripes in Shadow and Katherine and also the black fur.  
Sangna "I'm still winning!"  
Silver *grins* "Wait 'till I catch up, Kathy!"  
Sangna *scowls*  
Sonic "Um... third." *shrugs* "Oh well!"**

**UnknownFollower= What really gets me when reading/writing a story is when someone dies... I was trying hard not to cry while writing Katherine's Tale when Maria died... anyways, you and me both! School is getting harder for me, it's like they're all secretly planning to throw big homework assignments at me sooner or later haha. And you took football this year? Nice...**

**Strife= Lol and you wore a cowboy hat while you were at it *shakes head slowly but smiles*. Yeah, the only way for people to get how Sangna/Katherine's feeling you have to connect it to Shadow since most people understand how irritated Shadow was getting at his missing memories in his game.  
Sangna "Oh whatever! I look nothing like..." *stops and looks at her black fur before scowling* "Anyways... I am not a reincarnation!"**

**Disclaimer= (I made it into a story... accidentally) Katherine frowned as Windy marched through the abandoned town with a scowl on her face. "Where do you think they all went?" Katherine asked nervously as Windy looked back at Katherine seriously.  
"Who knows?" Windy shrugged.  
Katherine blinked and looked back as Windy narrowed her eyes as a blast of wind caused a nearby building to explode. The tall, rusting water tower fell over and crashed onto the ground and water spewed out all over the place with a glass bear bottle with a cork lid. Windy picked up the bottle as it hit her shoe and took out the piece of paper while removing the cork. "Hmm..." She said thoughtfully as she read the paper.  
"So this is the thing that sent Zap's machines going haywire?" Katherine said frowning as Windy handed her the paper that read: 'sonic and co belong to SEGA. The Dimension Jumpers belong to BlackSandHeart. The mentioning of another, unknown hedgehog belongs to Chaosthehedgehog'.  
Windy shrugged. "Apparently."  
Katherine sighed and then yelped as the paper burst into flame. She dropped the paper as it turned into ashes before hitting the waterlogged ground.  
Windy blinked. "Well... that was random."**

CHAPTER ELEVEN= MEMORIES FORGOTTEN

_Sangna's POV_

Shadow and I sat very silently on this space machine for what seemed like years. Shadow had finally let go of our embrace and sat down next to me, keeping an arm wrapped around me protectively like I was going to get taken away by something unknown.

Then, the black hedgehog broke the silence. "What _can_ you remember?"

I was silent for a long moment. "Well… um…" I spilled out my side of the story, from where the female voice woke me up to this very moment. When I was done, I took a deep breath. "…and that's all I remember."

"So you remember nothing before that? Our adventures together, this space colony?"

"Space colony?"

Shadow waved a hand around the room we were in. "This is the Space Colony ARK. We used to live here… with Maria, Gerald… and some others."

I raised an eyebrow, I wanted him to continue but I suddenly remembered the voices and the visions. "Well… I did see some weird things." I quickly explained to him what I heard and saw and when I was done, Shadow was nodding.

"Sounds about right." Shadow mused. "Those things did happen over fifty years ago on this very ship and in this very room."

"Fifty years?!" I demanded. _How old am I?!_ I thought to myself nervously.

Shadow shook his head. "Don't worry about that right now. Our first priority is to get your memory back."

I scowled, so much for that kind of help. "How are we going to do that?"

Shadow said nothing for a moment. "Everything will be alright; we'll get through this like we did last time and all the times before that."

I sighed. "But I don't remember what even happened last time."

Shadow chuckled quietly, more to himself then to me. He stood up and helped me to my feet. "Maybe if I can give you a tour around here, maybe that will help jog your memory."

I shrugged. It was an idea. Shadow walked towards the doors and they slid open at his coming. He looked back to make sure I was following him as I moved into a dimly lit hallway. With a chill, I realized this place looked just like it did on Black Doom's spaceship.

"So this place… what's it called again?" I asked as we moved down the metal hallways. The lights over our heads were dimming and some were flickering in and out of existence. The smell of dust was thick in the air, and it made me sneeze after a moment.

Shadow looked back, amused by my sneeze probably, the look on his face said so, "The Space Colony ARK."

"Space Colony ARK… the ARK… something happened here… didn't it?" I asked as I looked around nervously. I suddenly had the feeling of running and calling out unknown names hopefully. Shadow stopped and looked back at me, hope flashing in his crimson eyes.

"Yes… can you think of what happened?" He asked me seriously.

I focused for a long moment but found nothing. I shook my head at Shadow and watched the light of hope die out in his eyes. He turned and walked away while I frowned, and walked after him slowly.

"What _did _happen here, Shadow?" I asked nervously as I followed him down the multiple hallways.

Shadow shook his head sadly, "Many, many bad things."

"Can you _please_ be more specific? You're almost as bad as Doom is when it comes to riddles." I grumbled.

Shadow growled at my words and I remembered that Shadow got into a fight with Doom right before I came here. "Shadow… what happened to Doom? Did you defeat him?"

Shadow said nothing for a moment. "He… ran off."

"He ran off?"

"Back to the Black Comet."

"Black Comet?"

"The place where the Black Arms are hiding," Shadow looked back at me, a frown on his face. I could tell he was not enjoying having to answer all these questions.

"And… sorry 'bout this… but the Black Arms? Who are they?"

Shadow sighed and continued walking, stopping at a four way stop where the hallway split into four separate directions and then continued, turning to the left. I followed him without much hesitation. I didn't know why but I felt safe around this black hedgehog. Maybe he was right, maybe I was his sister after all. Or maybe I at least knew him once before my memory was taken away. I wasn't sure but before I could dwell on the subject for any longer, Shadow answered my question.

"They're an alien race that lives off of war. They're known for traveling all over the universe and killing anything and taking over anything that's in their path. Black Doom is the leader of them all and he is just as merciless. Black Doom happens to be my biological father since the professor that used to work with him: Gerald Robotnik used a sample of his blood to create myself."

"Create you…? So you're like a…"

"I'm an experiment." Shadow said dryly. "I was known as the Ultimate Life Form to the scientists on this ship."

"So you're made out of Black Doom's blood…" I said thoughtfully. "If that's the case then am I? He said I was his daughter."

Shadow flinched at my words, "In a way, yes. Black Doom inserted Black Arms blood into your body and it must be the cause for your amnesia. So, if that's the case, you have Black Doom's blood running through your veins so that technically make him your father."

"That's terrible." I muttered. "Now I'm related to a crazy emerald wanting weirdo."

Shadow chuckled at my words and stopped before another automatic door. The door opened before him and I found myself at a long, dusty, wooden table. We walked into the room and I looked around it carefully, admiring every detail I saw. To my left was a dusty soda fountain and next to that was a vacant window that used to lead to- I'm guessing- a kitchen.

"Wow, what happened here?" I asked as Shadow took a seat in the closest chair. I took a seat next to him and looked up at the metal ceiling high above our heads.

"It hasn't been used for awhile." Shadow shrugged, like this was an obvious answer.

I looked over at my apparent _brother_ and frowned. "So… can you explain to me what happened here?"

Shadow took a deep breath, opening his mouth to say something when the door behind him opened. I glanced behind him in surprise and Shadow did too. Both of our eyes widened at the people at the door.

"What? You think you can just ditch us, Shadow?" Sonic the hedgehog laughed as he walked in. The others followed him cautiously and I recognized the boy called Xsus run up to me. He wrapped his arms around my neck and started crying.

"Oh Katherine! You're okay! If you weren't, I wasn't going to know what I was going to do! Who was going to buy me ice cream? Who was going to tease me? Who was going to…?"

"Katherine doesn't buy you ice cream!" The girl named Ria scolded as she sat down across from me. I could only stare as faces, unfamiliar and familiar took seats at the table around me. Everyone filled up every chair available and when they were done, they all looked at me, as if expecting me to do a magic trick.

I shrank lower in my seat. I didn't like all this attention these people were giving me.

Shadow noticed my reaction. "Of all times to come, Sonic." He growled. "You chose now. How did you get here anyways?"

The blue hedgehog looked over to Shadow and grinned as he pulled out a blue Chaos Emerald. "Chaos Control, it's easy. Besides we still have the emeralds that you guys gathered to stop Sierra long ago."

Shadow rolled his eyes. "While you were in… what was it… Dairy Land?"

"Darrius." Sonic growled, the humor going out of his eyes like a candle being blown out.

"Calm down…" Before I knew what I was doing, I found myself getting in the middle of a fight and drawing the uncomfortable attention back to myself while I tried stopping it. "There's no need to fight. We've got better things to… ah… focus on."

"She's right!" Silver stood up on the other end of the table and I found my face growing red as I suddenly remembered the Silver that called himself a memory. "Black Doom will probably launch a surprise attack on us at any given moment. We can't just bicker."

"Well first…" A dark voice said and my eyes narrowed as all of us glanced over at Sierra who sat at the end of the table with arms crossed, boots on the table, and eyes narrowed. I growled to myself when I saw her, forgetting completely about Silver for once. "I think we should see if amnesia girl over here can remember anything."

Everyone looked at me again and I felt myself shrinking in my chair again.

"Katherine… are you okay?" Ria asked nervously.

"Of course not!" Sierra sniffed. "She lost her memory! She doesn't even recognize who any of us are…"

I frowned at Sierra's words but she was right. I swallowed nervously and spoke up, bringing the attention back to me. "Look, she's right. I don't remember anything. I only know half of you but all I remember is Black Doom coming in and telling me to get the Chaos Emeralds."

"So…" A red echidna spoke up and I looked over at him with a frown. "You don't know who _any_ of us are?"

I shook my head. "I don't even know who you are."

"Knuckles." The echidna muttered. "My name's Knuckles."

I sighed. "Fine. Anyways, do any of you have any ideas on how to get my memory back?"

A shake of heads went up around the room and Shadow spoke up. "I got my memories back the hard way, I waited for little things to trigger them."

"That could take years though! And none of us exactly have a book on Katherine's history." A boy with weird, antler like ears argued.

"Katherine…" A golden hedgehog said and I looked over at her as Shadow's ears perked up. Her voice sounded familiar, just like everyone else's in the room but her voice was just as annoying as Shadow's was when I first met him. "Do you know who I am…?"

I frowned and clenched my hand into a fist. "I-I…" I found myself stuttering. "I… I think so… but it's not ringing a bell. You sound familiar…"

"I'm Maria…" The hedgehog said quietly.

"Maria?" Shadow sounded just as stunned. "What happened to you?!"

Maria laughed weakly. "The other dimension, there was enough light energy to turn me into this."

Her laugh bugged me… I knew I was supposed to know what this meant but… suddenly, searing pain flashed through me and I let out a cry as I put a hand to my head. I heard some people yell out the name: Katherine as I bent over as light flashed through my mind.

_"You tried to kill me with a lamp!"_ A voice that sounded _just_ like Maria's suddenly called out.

Another voice called out and I recognized it as my own. _"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!"_

_ "…Anyways, the name's Maria. What's your name?"_

_ "Katherine…"_

The light vanished and I found myself on the ground staring up at the ceiling. Shadow and Silver were both looking down at me with frowns on their faces. "Are you… okay?" Silver asked nervously.

I blinked slowly and shook my head as I sat up. "Y-yeah…"

"What was that about?" Sonic asked.

"It was… nothing." I muttered as I took my seat again. Shadow sat down next to me and shot a questioning look at Silver, who was moving back to his seat slowly.

I took a deep breath and then noticed everyone was staring at me. I scowled, an annoyed look on my face. "And what are you all staring at?"

Everyone quickly looked away.

"So…" Sonic coughed. "It looks like we have no choice but to let Katherine's memory return the hard way…"

"Black Doom said if I gathered the Chaos Emeralds then I'll be able to get my memory back." I said hopefully.

Sonic shook his head sadly. "I don't think they can do that. Besides, you're in the presence of all seven of them now."

I blinked in surprise. "Really?"

"Really." Sonic nodded and I watched as some people around the room pull out different colored emeralds and set them on the table. I set my yellow emerald along with the Soul Emerald on the table and all emeralds glowed… but nothing happened.

I dropped my shoulders sadly and looked at the table, so much for that plan. Doom lied to me, I should've figured though. He _did_ try to kill me.

Shadow put a hand on my shoulder. "Don't worry, Katherine. We'll get your memories back sooner or later, don't worry."

"Are you so sure…?" A voice that sounded familiar said from the door. All of us glanced at the door in surprise and fear to see none other than Black Doom the hedgehog standing at the door. His crimson eyes glowed with evil light and he let out a dark chuckle.

Then, when he spoke again, his words brought chills down my spine. "Down with the traitors: Shadow and Sangna."

**Quote for the Story: "Activate yourself to duty by remembering your position, who you are, and what you have obliged yourself to be." –Thomas Kempis**

**Alright! Thanks for reading the chapter and I'll see you when the next one chapter out! Please do leave a review and I'll thank you when the next chapter comes out (hopefully tomorrow)!**

**Zap *lifts a fist* "Review or I'll throw a spoon at her head!"**

**Windy *face palms* "Don't listen to him. Just review please."**


	12. Death and Triumph

**Hello and welcome to the next chapter of The Return! **

**Special thanks goes to my FanFiction Ohama for reviewing: Storm, Strife, UnknownFollower, Rya, and Amicus!**

**Storm= Yeah, Black Doom. Anyone want to cheer him on? *crickets* Thought so! Anyways, yeah Katherine's memory is coming back slowly… but it's taking forever, even for me. Thanks for the review, Storm!  
Katherine *blinks slowly then grins* "Go ahead and shoot him! I hate him just as much as you do!"**

**Strife= Seriously? Yes! I've been hoping it's been turning out well. And no… I didn't mean to insult Wisconsin… it was an entire accident!  
Sangna *scowls and shakes head* "That's just… that's just not even funny."  
Strife "Yes it is."  
Sangna "No it's not!"**

**UnknownFollower (I'd give you a nickname but the name's cool as it is; I can't make it any better!)= Lol, glad you liked the lamp part, that was one of my favorite parts to write in Katherine's Tale *laughs*. Oh a back to school dance! You lucky duck…! I haven't had one dance yet, but then again my school's tiny. Ugh… 8 am football practice *winces* guess you're not as lucky anymore.**

**Rya= Doodlybop? Lol that word is officially the word of the day XD. Anyways, yeah I think that's how everyone is with guessing- I'm good as long as I'm right! :D You're good at it too! Lol, no SilverStream wouldn't throw a cat onto your lap without a good reason. Agreeing with you there! If I was a bad guy I'd never tell my plans to anyone, I'd have them struggle to figure it out. No math this year? By the Light Givers you're so lucky! *Sighs* Oh well… I'm trying to get better at my third person writing too but it's a weird style (obviously) are you native born first person writer too? Hehe, Black Doom blood transfusion lol good way to put it! But yeah, I hope everything turns out well in the end… (I'd tell you but it'd ruin the story…!) That's true, Black Doom does have everyone do everything for him *cough* Shadow the hedgehog game *cough* So, 'bout your question (that **_**is**_** quite an creeperish question… but this is the only personal info of my location I'll ever give out haha ^^ you're lucky I trust you!): MST in the United States. Hope that clears things up *grins*  
Zap *blinks at the hug* "Well… I'm glad you liked that story and it's considered one."  
Windy *laughs***

**Amicus= Glad you liked the quote and the disclaimer! Lol oh my gosh that's going to be a funny scene: Shadow "WHAT?!" And Katherine might flip out if she learns that she's over three hundred and sixty years old. So 'bout your question, the stripes thing, Shadow already had them as a cannon character it's the three red stripes he has on his quills. So, no… I didn't make them up... sorry. I only made up the red highlights in Katherine's hair. You're writing a story? *eyes light up* When do I getta see it?!**

**Chaos= I know, I know, you didn't review but I gotta question for you… actually two… well one's a comment… but anyways moving on. What color are Chaos' eyes and since we apparently have the same taste for music too, have you heard the song: This Is War by 30 Seconds to Mars? Idk why but I've been obsessed with that song recently…**

**DISCLAIMER= Chase *leans forward with the biggest headphones the Light Givers have ever seen on his head, starts turning a dial around like he's trying to tune something. Has a thoughtful look like he's listening to something* "H-hey! I think I'm getting something!"  
Jason *spins around in his spinning chair and tears off his own humongous headphones* "You got something?!" *runs over to Chase and passes Xsus as he does so, who's spinning in his spinning chair at impossible speeds while giggling: weeee!*  
Chase *unplugs headphones as Jason, Ria, and Xerius gather around*  
Unknown voice sounding alien like: **_**"Sonic and company belong to SEGA. The Dimension Jumpers belong to the author BlackSandHeart. And finally, the unknown hedgehog belongs to Chaosthehedgehog."  
**_**Ria "That's weird. What can that possibly mean?"  
Chase *shrugs then grins* "Wait till Zap hears about this one! Haha and I **_**told**_** him aliens were real!"**

CHAPTER TWELVE= DEATH AND TRIUMPH

Xerius growled and stood up, flicking his wrists and extracting his long, wolverine style claws as Black Doom walked farther into the room. His three crimson eyes glowed with unspeakable rage as he glared at everyone in the room. He turned his attention to the Chaos Emeralds on the table and sneered.

"How nice of you to gather all seven of them for me!" He said with mockery in his voice.

"They're not for you!" Katherine/Sangna barked as she grabbed the yellow emerald and her Soul Emerald.

Doom glared at her. "You can't speak for much, Sangna. You betrayed me. I offered to give your memory back and this is how your repay me?" Doom waved his hands out towards the others at the table, "Going to my enemies after I saved your life."

"You did anything but!" Shadow growled.

By now the others had stood up in their chairs and each were giving Black Doom a death look. Maria glared at him. "Leave Black Doom! You're not welcomed here!"

Black Doom looked over at Maria. "Oh really? And who's going to enforce that, your grandfather?"

Maria looked like she was trying not to cry now. "M-my grandfather was a good man!"

Black Doom sneered. "Are you so sure? It's his entire fault that I'm here…"

"That's ENOUGH!" Katherine slammed her fist into the table and caused everyone to look at her. She glared at Doom. "You _lied_ to me! You told me that if I gathered the emeralds then I would have my memory back but I still can't remember a thing!"

Black Doom rolled his eyes. "Wouldn't you like to know? I want those emeralds for my own use. With the emeralds, my entire army can come down and I can rule this pathetic world the way it's supposed to be!"

Katherine growled angrily.

Black Doom shook his head. "But I said too much… it's time I killed you all where you stand!" He lifted a hand out and concentrated. Then, a blast of energy emitted from his hand and everyone on Shadow's side of the table hopped over to the other side.

Sierra pulled out her sword and looked back to the others while everyone turned to run. "Get out of here, NOW!"

"But Sierra…!" Sonic started to say but was cut off short when Amy grabbed his hand and yanked him out of the room, followed by the others as they grabbed the Chaos Emeralds.

Sierra turned her attention to Black Doom. "I won't let you touch any of them. I'm the one that's supposed to kill them all."

Black Doom sneered. "Are you so sure?"

"Positive," With that, Sierra lunged at Doom.

-XXXXXXXX-

"This way!" Maria called to everyone as she led the way through the hallways of the ARK with Shadow and Katherine right behind her then the rest of the crew behind them. Sonic looked at the metal hallways around him and wondered for a moment what it would be like to grow up here.

A sharp turn to the right and they came face to face with a set of stairs. Shadow Chaos Controlled himself next to the door opened the door leading to the stairs and Maria led the way up. Katherine slid to a stop before reaching the door as everyone ran past her. "I- I know these stairs! Someone was killed on these stairs!"

Shadow frowned as he grabbed Katherine's hand and ran through the door. "You keep thinking about your past, and I'll lead." He growled to her as he practically dragged Katherine through the hallways.

"There was… someone who kept me safe from all of this. He tried protecting me from… someone." Katherine said as Shadow jumped up the stairs after the others, catching up quickly. "He went insane… and then I lost the other one… and the third was dead when I found… and the escape pods…"

Katherine's words weren't making any sense but Shadow had an idea that she was gaining some knowledge of her past at last. He finally caught up to the others and was still dragging Katherine behind him.

Knuckles looked back as they ran but didn't see Black Doom. He took a secret sigh of relief as Tikal and Shade ran next to him. He looked up at Sonic in the front. "Where are we going?"

"Ask Maria!" Was Sonic's reply.

"Maria…!"

"Forest! We're going to the artificial forest!" Maria called back to him before he could finish his sentence.

Shadow nodded to himself, the forest, brilliant. It was the perfect place to hide from anyone, even Black Doom.

Maria took another sharp right and slid to a stop before a giant, dusty, metal gate. She quickly went up to the keyboard next to the door and typed in six letters into it then the door opened, revealing a giant, lush, green forest.

"What the…?" Sonic gasped as Maria ran into the room.

Maria looked back and motioned everyone to follow her. "Grandfather built this for my friends and I fifty years ago. He brought up a few seeds from Earth and planted a forest in here. With a bit of Chaos Energy, the forest grew within a few days and the water system on the ARK waters it every day. Everything in here is real, we just call it artificial because it's up here in space. But it's obvious no one's been in here for years…"

Maria had a sad look on her face as Katherine and Shadow stopped next to her and the others gathered in to look at the different trees before them. The forest was dimly lit by the lights high above their heads that were running off of the backup generator.

"It's still beautiful." Maria breathed as she looked up at the countless trees before them.

Katherine frowned. "I-it looks familiar…"

Shadow shook his head sadly as Katherine stared at the forest thoughtfully. "Come on, we need to head into the woods and hope for Black Doom to leave."

"Wait, we can't just sit here and hide…!" Katherine started to argue but was dragged off by Shadow.

Maria laughed quietly and walked after them.

Sonic looked at the large woods before him as Shadow started walking towards them. "This place is huge! We could get lost easily in here!"

"Well then, let's hope we don't then." Shadow said dryly, which resulted a glare from the blue blur.

Before the crew could walk into the forest however, a sudden banging sound was heard behind them and Shadow felt himself and Katherine being shoved to the left. Both siblings crashed into the ground hard and then heard a cry of pain from where they used to be standing.

Katherine sat up faster than Shadow did and looked over at the door, seeing Black Doom holding a smoking gun. Doom's eyes widened and he dropped the gun which dissolved into darkness as Katherine looked to the left… and watched Silver fall to the ground silently.

There was a moment of silence as Doom started laughing evilly.

"What?! No! SILVER!" Katherine yelled as she stumbled next to the white hedgehog that laid face first into the ground. A bullet hole was in his back and Katherine's eyes widened in horror at the wound.

"Finally one of you is destroyed! Now I can take the Chaos Emeralds!" Doom called. "CHAOS CONTROL!"

Suddenly, the Chaos Emeralds floated from the places where everyone was keeping them safe and hovered silently in the air. After a moment, Doom started glowing with unknown light and everyone covered their eyes as a flash of bright light suddenly appeared from Black Doom's body.

When the light was gone, everyone looked again to no longer see a hedgehog but a tall being with horns, three eyes, and a ridiculous looking robe. When he laughed, his voice sounded more like an echo but was still Doom's voice nonetheless. "Finally! The Chaos Emeralds have transformed me back into my true form! I will be able to stop you all if any of you dare challenge me! THIS WORLD BELONGS TO ME NOW!"

He let out another evil laugh while everyone could only stare in shock and horror. As Black Doom laughed he started to vanish into the darkness around him. As he vanished, the Chaos Emeralds stopped glowing brightly and fell to the ground, transforming into just plain emeralds. Before he was gone completely though, Black Doom gave them all a dark look then smirked.

Then he was gone.

Katherine tore her attention away from where Black Doom was and turned to Silver's unmoving body. She gently turned Silver over to his front and laid an ear on his chest, listening for a heartbeat. The others gathered around her with worried looks on their faces.

Ria then pushed her way to the front and sat down across from Katherine, a worried look in her eyes, like she was ready to heal Silver but wasn't sure if it was going to be worth it. "Is he…?"

Katherine said nothing, listening but after a moment, tears formed in her eyes and she looked up at Ria. "G-gone…"

A long moment of silence appeared over the group as the horror of what just happened settled in. "G-gone?!" Blaze the cat demanded. She ran forward, dropped to her knees, and put her ear on Silver's chest and listened… but came to the same results Katherine did. Tears fell down both cat's faces as they looked at each other.

"He was my friend…" Blaze whispered quietly.

"Same with me…" Katherine lowered her head and flattened her ears.

After a moment of silence, Katherine slammed her fist into the ground angrily and her Soul Emerald that had fallen out of her pocket started glowing brightly. Katherine clenched her fists together and looked to the roof as everyone looked at her in surprise. "It's not fair! I can't remember a thing and everyone's dying because of me!"

"Katherine…" Tikal started to say but Katherine shook her head stubbornly.

"It's not fair! It's not! He's dead and this is my entire fault!"

"Katherine…!" Maria started to say but was cut off by Katherine as she continued her angry little rant.

"You all put your lives in steak because of me. Heck, I almost killed Xsus and Ria here because of me blowing up the city. I almost destroyed Shadow, Sonic, and Sierra when they first came around. I don't remember how to fight well, I don't even know if my real name _is_ Katherine or if it is Sangna…

"Besides, if I'm Sangna then I have a totally different past that none of you know about but all are worried about! I- I…!" Katherine put her head in her hands and started sobbing quietly. Everyone in the room didn't know what to say as she cried.

Katherine lifted her head out of her hands once more and looked to the ceiling again sadly. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before screaming out three words with every ounce of energy she had left. "IT'S NOT FAIR!"

Suddenly, the room burst into a bright, white light.

**Quote for the Story: "A man who won't die for something is not fit to live." –Martian Luther King Jr.**

**Cliffhanger! Stay tuned for the next chapter that'll hopefully come out tomorrow!**

**Zap *raises eyebrow* "You heard an alien?"**

**Chase "Yeah! You guys heard it too, didn't you?"**

**Everyone but Xsus *nods* (Xsus is still spinning quickly in the spinning chair while giggling)**

**Zap *raises eyebrow* "There's no such thing, Chase."**

**Chase "I'm telling you, I heard it!"**

**Xsus "Uh oh… I'm starting to feel sick…" *sticks tongue out as he stops spinning***

**Everyone *pales***

**Me "Um… so please leave a review and I'll see you when the next chapter comes out! Chao, or Doodlybop as Rya says!"**


	13. Discoveries

**Hiya readers! Welcome to a chapter that brings for my favorite bad guy I've ever created… oh hey Sierra.**

**Sierra *glares* "No. Don't even talk to me."**

**Me "You know he's better."**

**Sierra "Yeah, yeah, whatever."**

**Me "Moving on! Thanks goes to my Crazy Writing Ohama for reviewing: Storm, Strife, Rya, Chaos, UnknownFollower, and Amicus!**

**Storm= Katherine *gladly steps aside* "Shoot him please."  
I know…! Silver's gone…!**

**Strife= Haha! Used a Shadow rifle… haha. Anyways here's the next chapter with a bad guy you should be familiar with so you can get a feel of his, ah, creepiness. Glad you liked the cliffhanger, I truthfully enjoy writing them very much.  
Sangna "Goes double for me… or so I hear… I can't remember… and I don't know."**

**Rya= Lol it was a flipping amazing word. My friend gave me this for the word of the day: **_**Slather**_** XD. Lol Calculus I heard is horrifying never taken it yet though (not that I **_**want**_** to…). Lol yeah I'm better at writing in first person but third person explains everything easier… sometimes.  
Lol far away? How far…? Oh wait, that's a creeper question too, never mind!  
Haha, so many people were all like "Where the heck is Sierra?!" It made me laugh... but yeah you'll find out what happened to her in this chapter.  
So many good guesses! I wish I could tell you what happens but I guess you're going to just have to read and find out...! Black Doom... humph. You're an evil liar and killer. Anyways, Doodlypop... ahaha that still makes me laugh. That and Slather.  
**

**Chaos=Thanks for answering my question! It pops up later on in the story so I had to wonder… So yeah, Doom's a liar no surprise there though *annoyed look*. But yeah, the other's soul he apparently used was Katherine's to bring Sangna's. About her form… well… that get explained later on in the story or I'd tell you!  
Sierra "Heh, first."  
Katherine "Oh shut it."  
Xsus *takes Nightshade and puts her on his head before lifting a finger proudly* "I will see you… in a few chapters." *runs off while laughing* "Hey Cream!"  
Ah! Thanks for the song recommendations! They all sound good so far (I'm listening to them currently) and you like Linkin Park?! My respect for you has just sky rocketed. Haha, and don't worry I'm white and occasionally nerdy too (you should hear me talk about story ideas…).  
Katherine *scowls* "Haha, very funny Chaos."  
I actually cannot wait to read your next story! Thanks for the disclaimer idea, I was running out of ideas haha!  
Katherine *sword appears in her hands as her eyes narrow* "Alright girl, you're done. I don't care who you are but **_**no one**_** pulls a sword out on my brother! You hear me?"**

**UnknownFollower= Agree with you there. Immortality would be terrible thing to have, unless you got someone to spend immortality with, then it'll be less annoying. But anyways, yeah… Silver's dead… *sighs sadly***

**Amicus= Lol yeah, almost every bad guys explains all their genius plans and then they lose points for telling the hero their "best evil plan ever that cannot be stopped". Annoying. Sierra? Oh… yeah… you're going to find out in this chapter! And yeah… Silver's dead… *sad look*  
Moving on… anyways, ah! I see whatcha mean now, sorry I'm part blond over here XD. So, yeah I think it is cannon. All the Sonic websites I've been too have all agreed about that but it **_**is**_** a FanFiction so I'm suuure you could improvise somehow. Make an account soon pleeeasssse! Oh, so you like multi-dimensions too? I always loved that idea so I put it in a story...!  
Silver "I'm alllliveeee!"  
Sangna *pales* "He's alive! Quick! Someone get me a shovel…"  
Sonic *starts laughing*  
Zap "Whhhat? His ancestors could've somehow came from Mobius!"**

**DISCLAIMER= Hmmm… Chaos offered an all character story about all OC's I've written. Prepare for all of Darkness and Light to break lose…  
Sierra and Flame *fist fighting while Katherine, Windy, Zap, and Savanna watch, uninterested*  
Katherine *turns to Windy* "Hang on, if Flame's dead… then what the crap is she doing here?"  
Windy *shrugs* "Let's just say you're dreaming and move on with life. If you're lucky maybe you'll wake up and I won't have to live through this anymore."  
Katherine *Scowls* "Oh thanks for the love, Wind."  
Windy "You're welcome."  
Xsus *runs by with empty bucket being chased by a dripping wet Chase screaming death threats and Jason and Ria are running behind him*  
Strife *appears out of the darkness and tosses a surprised Zap a piece of paper* "This is for you."  
Zap *takes the paper and gives Strife a look before opening it and reading it* "It's from Boom… huh… and he wrote down a bunch of nonsense on the paper… again."  
Windy "Well? What does it say this time?"  
Zap *coughs and then speaks* "'I sent this to you for the fun of it but I thought you'd like to know some information that can be considered useless or not: Sonic and Co. belong to SEGA, the Dimension Jumpers belong to BlackSandHeart, the unknown hedgehog belongs to Chaosthehedgehog, and Strife and Fengari belong to Strife the Dark 152'."  
Flame *scowls as she looks over* "Oh what? Come on! I found one of those messages just like that in a tree!"  
Katherine "Now that's just creepy."  
Flame *raises eyebrow* "Well duh."  
Katherine *glares*  
Chaos *walks into the room with a big grin* "Hey guys!"  
Katherine *puts hands over her ears* "Oh no! Now Chaos is stuck in this dream...!"  
Fengari *runs in excitedly with a bucket of water* "Hey guys! Look what I got!"  
Strife "And what could that be?"  
Fengari *grins evilly* "A bucket of water."  
Flame *face palms* "What are you going to do with that?"  
Fengari *dumps it on Chase as he runs by* "That."**

CHAPTER THIRTEEN= DISCOVERIES

"Did you find anything?" Windy asked Zap as he searched through the three hundredth book. The Light Giver looked up at her, shook his head, and looked down at the thick five thousand paged book that was littered in dust.

The two had been gathering information from Tails that the fox sent over to them. They knew about Katherine being transformed into another form, Sierra helping out in some strange way, and about the Black Arms.

Windy shook her head. "We could ask the librarian…"

Zap growled as he slammed the book close, creating a loud _boom_ that echoed around the biggest library in the universe. "I don't want to ask for help from her!"

"She's almost as old as we are. Do you really want to save Katherine or are you going to let your pride continue to be injured because you can't find a simple _book_?" Windy said, a smirk growing on her face as she leaned towards Zap. She dropped a blue book on the table and then gave Zap a dark look. "If you're not going to ask then I will and you know how dangerous that could be."

Zap sighed and stood up, giving the thick green book he slammed close a dirty look as he did so. "Fine. I'm coming."

Windy nodded and led the way through the library. It was one of the strangest in the universe's as well as the biggest. The entire library was underground and the stone walkways floated in mid air. The ground far below was impossible to see and the bookshelves seemed to float on thin air next to the stone walkways. The only source of light was little glowing balls of energy that came from the librarian's office. The library held every book that was made by anyone, from history, to science fiction, to even FanFictions.

Except, the library was one of the most dangerous as well. The library was too big to fit on the Light Givers' side of the territory so it stretched out to the Followers of Darkness' territory. Fighting wasn't allowed here but occasionally a few fights broke out when a Follow of Darkness said something extremely unintelligent to a Light Giver or the other way around.

Windy glanced around, keeping a look out for a Follower of Darkness but didn't see anything. The library was also rumored to be haunted by the authors who wrote these books but no one could actually prove it.

Zap stopped on a stone walkway and glared down a hallway that was covered by shelves of books. The hallway was noticeably darker than all the others ones. Windy stopped next to him and also looked down the hallway.

"What… oh great," She grumbled as Zap marched down the walkway towards the darkness. Windy followed after a moment and they both stopped when it opened up to a large circle room with plenty of comfortable, leather chairs. Except, all the chairs were empty except one where an unexpected face sat.

It was a boy, maybe nine or ten with skin that was almost as white as paper. His pale white hands flipped through a thick, dark blue book. He looked up as Zap stood before him and Windy stopped next to him, his eyes were black and showed no light in them, giving both Light Givers the chills. His shaggy black hair hung in his eyes as he closed the book and set it on a coffee table next to him. Windy glanced at the book but could only read the words '_Mirror'_ on the cover. "Ah, my friends! How good it is to see you." As he spoke, the temperature in the room dropped ten degrees and his voice sounded like he should be nineteen or twenty instead of nine or ten.

"Father Darkness," Zap growled with a bit of respect in his voice. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm reading!" Father Darkness, or FD, said dramatically. He spread his hands out wide to the hundreds of books on the tables all around him. "Can't the leader of the Followers of Darkness read in peace without a Light Giver going down their throat every ten seconds?"

Uncomfortable silence settled down as the Light Givers glared at the boy who was the one who killed Terrarock, the one who now led the Followers of Darkness. This boy was immortal just like Windy and Zap were.

"You're human." Windy blinked in surprise as she looked at the boy suspiciously. "Last I saw you, you were a cat."

FD gave her a look. "Humph, wouldn't you like to know why? I'll give you a hint, it was a long time ago when we found some very interesting information about the transformation of human to animal that the Light Givers and Followers of Darkness have to suffer through."

"That's impossible!" Zap growled. "There's no logical way for that to be able to happen."

FD sighed and picked up another book. He opened the large book that seemed huge compared to his small hands and started flipping through the pages lazily without looking at them. "Yet here I am. On another note, I hear Katherine's in trouble, poor thing."

"Who told you?" Zap took a step forward and reached a hand towards his sword.

FD's eyes glinted with an evil light for a moment. "Wouldn't you like to know? I have spies in the most unexpected of places."

_Sierra…_ Windy and Zap thought simultaneously.

FD finally stopped on a page and looked at the book with a frown. He then sat up and stretched the book towards Zap. "Here you go, Zap. This might help you on your journey."

"Why would you help us out?" Zap growled to him as he cautiously took the book, like it was going to explode in his hands.

FD laughed darkly. "Oh Zap! So many questions yet so little answers! You're going to have to find out yourself someday! Till we meet again, Light Givers!" With that, he suddenly vanished into the darkness and was gone from sight.

"I hate that guy." Windy growled.

Zap looked at the book and his eyes widened in surprise. "Hey… he found what I was looking for."

"He did?!" Windy said, taking a step closer to Zap to read the book too.

Zap took a deep breath and read the book aloud, his eyes growing wider with worry as Windy peaked over his shoulder, reading along as he read. "Unknown substances released within a body that has been transformed into the ways of light or darkness can lead to… death within three days to the victim if not taken care of immediately. The main ways someone can know if they're suffering the effects would be:

-Amnesia

-Personality Change

-(the most important on them all) Change in Appearance."

There was a moment of silence as Windy and Zap realized the trouble they were in.

-XXXXXXXX-

Katherine/Sangna's POV

_"Katherine…! Come here!" A voice called._

_ "Coming!" A voice that belonged to this girl Katherine said. Suddenly, light was available and I looked around in surprise to see that I was in a golden room. A quick look around showed that it looked similar to an art room with a hardwood flooring and pictures of flowers and plants all around me. Canvases sat here and there, some blank some not and newspapers with scattered drops of paint were on the ground surrounding a standing canvas with someone behind it. _

_A small girl ran into the room and stood next to the door with golden blond hair and big blue eyes. She rocked back and forth on her heels as she held her hands behind her back. "Yes, Windy?"_

_ A dark grey cat that stuck out like a sore thumb in the golden room peaked from behind a canvas. She held a paintbrush in her hand and motioned Katherine to come closer with the paintbrush. Katherine obliged and stood next to Windy as Windy waved a hand at a picture of a forest on her canvas. "You see this?"_

_ Katherine nodded, eyes growing big. "It's beautiful!"_

_ "Of course it is… because that's a special forest. They call it the Forest of the Forgotten. It's only a legend but apparently trillions of years ago before life was even created on this planet, a forest grew on this world filled with hidden secrets that no one tells. Everything lost or kept hidden stays in this forest." Windy explained, waving a hand at the green, black, and blue colors on her canvas._

_ "I didn't know you were an artist, Windy!" Katherine said, looking up at the cat named Windy thoughtfully._

_ "I am… I just don't like doing it. It reminds me of… my Dark Days. Anyways, the Forest of the Forgotten's tale has already _been_ forgotten. No one remembers it except the oldest people on this world, like myself, Zap, and a few others." Windy explained. "The importance of this forest is that if one goes here then they can find all the things they have lost, and they can hear the secrets that were never spoken aloud."_

_ "Can we go there someday?" Katherine asked hopefully._

_ Windy shook her head. "The Forest of the Forgotten disappeared years before I was even born. Even I don't know where it went. No one has ever seen it… and I don't think anyone ever will."_

_ "Windy!" A voice from another room called. "Can you help me out with something? I think I know how to get Katherine's power ramped up!"_

_ Katherine turned towards the voice fearfully while Windy sighed and put the paintbrush on a nearby table. "Coming Zap! Don't worry, Katherine. Even if you do change your form today you'll always be the same to me." _

_Katherine nodded the fear disappearing from her eyes for a moment. "O-okay."_

_ Windy smiled and glanced at the door. "Go to Zap. I think he needs you."_

_ Katherine grinned and ran off, blond hair flying as she ran out the door. As soon as she was gone, Windy turned and looked straight at me seriously. "The Forest of the Forgotten has your memories. And traces of the forest are hidden _in_ your memories. Remember this, and don't forget again." Windy took a step forward and gave me a sudden hug._

_ I blinked in surprise as Windy took a step back and then started leaving the room. She glanced back at me one more time before closing the door with a silent… click._

Suddenly, the image disappeared and I blinked in surprise as sudden, new images flashed through my mind. I winced at the pain it brought to me as the light surrounding me grew brighter and brighter. Then, it was gone… and I found myself glowing.

"W-what?!" Sonic the hedgehog gasped as he took a step back. Everyone else in the room didn't look any better.

I frowned as the images slowly formed into something more important and with a silent gasp, I realized they were memories. The pain was then gone and I then had the realization smack me in the face… I remembered. I knew who I was… and I knew what had to be done.

The Forest of the Forgotten had given back what it took from me.

"I- I remember…" I whispered quietly and I stood up, clenching a fist and feeling a burst of energy flying through me. "I am the Light Giver known as Katherine, sister to Shadow the hedgehog and about to knock Black Doom's head off."

A stunned moment of silence reached my ears as I smirked. With that, I pulled out my sword from thin air and vanished in a flash of golden light.

_THIRD PERSON POV_

"W-what the heck?!" Jason demanded as soon as Katherine was gone. "What just happened there?!"

"The Soul Emerald!" Shadow said as he picked up the glowing white emerald Katherine left behind. He looked at it thoughtfully and turned to the others. "It returned her memories since the emerald _is_ part of her soul."

"I have to tell Zap this…!" Tails started reaching for his communicator but Shadow growled at him angrily, stopping the fox short.

"No time! We have to help Katherine out!" Sonic said to him as Shadow turned towards the door.

"I got the Chaos Emeralds!" Knuckles said as he started gathering the dim emeralds frantically. Shade and Tikal jumped forward and started helping too.

Maria clasped her hands together. "Where do you think Katherine went?"

"After Black Doom of course." Shadow growled. "Now come on!" He was about to run out the door when a sudden familiar face appeared next to it.

"I know where she went." Sierra said as she crossed her arms and glared at the group.

"Sierra?" Sonic said. He ran up to her and stopped three feet away, keeping a respectful distance from the Follower of Darkness. "What happened?"

"Black Doom knocked me out, the wimp." Sierra grumbled as she rubbed the side of her head, gently feeling the bump that Black Doom had created when he pulled out a gun from the darkness and smacked her on the side of the head with it.

Ria took a step forward next to Jason. "I can heal that if you'd like…"

"No time!" Shadow growled to her. "Come on!" He then led the way out of the room and after a moment of hesitation, everyone started following the black hedgehog out. Blaze, with the help of Sonic, picked up Silver's body and ran off after the group.

-XXXXXXXX-

Katherine reappeared in space, looking around angrily and lifted her sword. Behind her the ARK floated patiently in outer space and the thing Shadow called the Black Comet was behind the Ark. Katherine's eyes narrowed as she pointed towards the comet. "BLACK DOOM! I challenge you!"

Appearing out of thin air, a monstrous being appeared. It was taller than Katherine was and its face was almost impossible to see. It seemed to not have any legs, either that or the long robe he was wearing covered it. The monster's horns were long and a point at the end of them that was sharper then her sword.

"Yes…?" Black Doom sneered and Katherine growled as she saw the monster.

"You used me!" Katherine snarled at the monster. "And because of that you're going to pay dearly. But not only have you tricked me into believing you, you've also killed my friend and you plan on taking over a world I have grown fond of over the last three hundred years of my existence!"

"Even with those reasons to back you up your still pathetic." Black Doom sneered. "It was a waste of my time to give you blood of the Black Arms, _my_ blood. I should kill you where you stand."

"Try your best!" Katherine hissed.

Black Doom started laughing and Katherine frowned for a moment. Why was he laughing? Black Doom looked at her after the laugh passed and he— seemed to— smirk. "You are such a weak person. Do you really think you can save the world and avenge your friend's death?"

Katherine suddenly felt tears stream down her face as soon as he spoke. She bit her tongue to prevent from sobbing and after a moment, she managed to speak. "Y-you monster…!"

"Monster? Have you taken a look at yourself recently, Katherine?" Doom asked, waving a hand in her direction.

Katherine looked at herself with a surprise look on her face and now understood why everyone had been staring after the flashback she had. Where there was black fur was now glowing a golden color but besides that she was still a cat with red highlights in her hair. She turned her attention back to Black Doom. "It doesn't matter what I look like. I'm going to avenge my friend's death and I might as well save the world while I'm at it!"

Katherine lifted her sword and glared at Black Doom. "Now come at me!"

**Quote for the Story: "There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are messengers of overwhelming grief… and unspeakable love." –Washington Irving**

"**FENGARI!" Chase spun around and lifted his fists towards the wolf as the wolf started laughing along with Strife and Flame.**

**I face palmed as I looked over at the group. "Okay, Chase. That's enough. So people don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you when the next chapter comes out!"**

**Katherine sighed as she put her head in her hands. "Well, I hope I wake up soon. This is a ridiculous dream and we've already broken the fourth wall."**

**I glared at Katherine. "Haha, very funny. So yeah, don't forget to review and see you when the next chapter comes by!"**


	14. Rematch

**Sonic "So **_**then**_**… Shadow pulled out this Desert Eagle out of nowhere and Sierra pulled out her sword and **_**then**_**…"**

**Xsus *leans forward excitedly* "And they killed the evil King Nazo?"**

**Sonic *scowls* "I'm getting there I'm getting there!"**

**Xsus *glances over at you with annoyed look* "He's a slow story teller."**

**Sonic *glares* "Oh come on! I'm the fastest hedgehog alive! Anyways, the author's out and about fixing the fourth wall. Moving on, she'd like to thank the ones who reviewed to her last story (her crazy writing Ohama): UnknownFollower, Strife, Rya, Chaos, Storm, and Amicus!"**

**UnknownFollower= 5K run…? *shudders at the last run* well, I hope it goes by easier for you than it did for me, even if I won second place. I hope to see you review again soon! But anyways, *laughs* yeah, Katherine would totally kick Black Doom's butt. We can only hope she can do it still though!**

**Strife= *shakes head slowly* that was such an FD thing to do… it scared me. So yeah, I guess that means all of us reviewers and writers haunt the universe's biggest library when we're dead haha. All those moments you picked were some of my favorites to write down. Oh, and FD is seen again in this chapter too…  
Strife "He gave it to me!"  
Flame *raises eyebrow while laughing* "Gave it to you? Are you sure you didn't just take it from him while leaving him unconscious…?"**

**Rya= Out of those two ****Doodlyslather**** made me laugh the hardest haha.  
Yeah I'd love to tell you what'd happen but I can't…! It's harder for me because you're all like family and it's like how can I **_**not**_** tell you people…?! Lol you have a point there but the future could've gone all topsy turnsy but yeah. I'm glad you loved the part when Katherine's awesome comments when she regained her memory and went after Black Doom. It was so much fun to write…!  
Shadow *blinks slowly*  
Windy and Zap *look at each other then quickly look away, faces red*  
Breaking the forth wall is fun huh…? Idea!**

**Chaos= Ah! Both of those songs are great though and I listened to all the songs you recommended! Although my favorite out of all of them was your fav: Me against the world- Simple Plan. Lol! Glad you liked the song, I got it yesterday too and decided to tell you about it haha.  
Xsus *pales then runs for his life* "Run Nightshade! Before he gets Xerius and gets the monkeys after us!"  
Lol, yeah Fengari would defiantly do something like that to Chase if that really did happen. Have you read the story Fengari, Strife, and Flame are in yet? I bet you'd like it. Strife wrote it (the reviewer, not the hedgehog haha).  
Katherine *teleports and back flips, kicking Jewel in the face before teleporting next to Chaos as health meter goes down again. Waves her sword in Jewel's direction* "So… who's she?"**

**Storm= Lol did you write that review at like three in the morning? Anyways, yeah Katherine's alive again, time for a celebration!  
Katherine *cheers***

**Amicus= Ooo! Vacation! Sounds fun! Sorry about the one shot story… still I bet the OCs could find something else to do. So yeah! Katherine go kick Black Doom's butt for all of us! So, Windy and Zap if they're in their human forms they actually look like they're about fourteen or so. But glad you like FD, he is by far my favorite OC badguy… no offence Sierra.  
Sierra *glares* "Yeah, yeah."  
Xsus *waves at the OCs enthusiastically* "Hiiiiii!"**

**DISCLAIMER= (brought to you by Chaos and Rya. If anyone else who isn't in the reviewing family reviews you might just end up on here)  
BlackSandHeart "Aha! Strife, you got any Kings?"  
Strife the Dark 152 *scowls* "Really? What is with you and your cards…?" *pushes a King over*  
Maraya Prower "So… how did we get here anyways?"  
Amicus "Well… the fourth wall **_**was**_** broken in the last disclaimer…"  
Chaosthehedgehog *pulls card from the pile then grins* "Hey! You guys lost! I found the disclaimer card! I win!"  
Everyone (but Chaos) "Awww!" *throws cards into a pile*  
UnknownFollower= "Might as well read it aloud so we can all see and prove that none of us own anything." *shrugs*  
Chaosthehedgehog "SEGA owns Sonic, Dimension Jumpers belong to BlackSandHeart, the mysterious hedgehog belongs to me, yada yada yada."  
BlackSandHeart *raises eyebrow* "Nice ending."**

CHAPTER FOURTEEN= REMATCH

Windy booked it out of the exit to the library and took a deep breath, sliding to a stop and looking around angrily. "Drat!" She cursed to herself. "Follower of Darkness' territory! I _knew_ someone messed around with those signs!"

Zap ran up next to her, panting from their long run in the library. It was easy to get lost and _stay_ lost in that library, that was another reason why it was considered haunted. They would've teleported out but some unknown magic kept Light Givers and Followers of Darkness from doing that. He looked around and sighed. "You have _got_ to be kidding me."

Windy sighed as a Zap looked around next to her. "Do you think it was FD?"

"Sounds like him, but I don't think so. Normally his traps are a bit trickier with just a bunch of Follower of Darkness thugs." Zap said dryly.

Windy shook her head. "We don't have time to stand around here. We have to get out of here, now!" She concentrated then vanished in a flash of light, teleporting away.

Zap looked around thoughtfully and then also teleported away.

As soon as both were gone, out from the shadows of a bare and dead tree stood the pale boy known as FD. He marched forward with a smirk and picked up the book Zap had accidently dropped while teleporting away.

He lifted the book to the dim light since the sky on the Followers of Darkness' side of the territory was always covered in black clouds. His smirk grew darker when he looked at the book, seeing it was the same one that he had given to Zap no more than thirty minutes ago. He snapped and the book vanished while he turned and marched away, his black cape and clothes flowing in the dead wind.

"Come Ravarus!" FD called suddenly as he walked away, his footsteps crunching the dead grass beneath him. "Let us march onward to victory!"

A raven that had cleverly hid itself in the trees looked up, revealing itself to be the size of a house cat. It floated down and landed on FD's shoulder as the boy walked away with his head held high and a smirk on his face as an evil plan formed slowly in his mind.

-XXXXXXXX-

The automatic doors burst open and Shadow slid to a stop before a shocking sight. His eyes widened as the others piled behind him and they all found themselves in the Stargazing Room… but its view wasn't facing Earth anymore. The entire colony had turned around and was showing a horrifying view of the Black Comet.

"Wow, talk about unexpected images." Rouge said with a frown, rubbing her eyes as if trying to get the image of the ugly black thing out of her mind.

Xerius snickered.

Xsus grinned. "Xerius laughed!"

Xerius glared at him and Xsus flattened his ears. "And the moment's over…"

"Enough guys," Sonic said as he ran towards the window. "I think I see something, you guys have to look at this!"

Everyone ran forward and saw a tall looking monster and something golden flying around it. After squinting, Shadow saw that it was none other than Black Doom and Katherine fighting. Shadow growled to himself angrily. "How much damage can you do today, Katherine?"

"I have an idea," Vector suddenly chimed up, bringing everyone his attention. "We can do what we did last time, blow up the Comet!"

"Good idea, Vector." Espio said dryly. "We can blow Katherine out of the sky while we're at it."

"It was just a suggestion!" Vector said, laughing nervously.

"What we need is to help her out." Sonic said thoughtfully. "Maybe the Chaos Emeralds have some access energy…"

"No, don't," Maria shook her head, "This is a fight Katherine has to take on alone… besides the Chaos Emeralds don't have much energy left as it is."

"How do you know?" Sonic asked her.

"Tikal told me," Maria waved a hand to the Echidna next to her, who blushed scarlet. Maria took a step forward and spread her hands out as she continued, "The Chaos Emeralds have the power to do almost anything, why don't we use it for something more productive and will have better results?"

"What are you implying?" Shadow asked seriously.

"We can use the Chaos Emeralds to bring Silver back." Maria waved a hand to the dead hedgehog Sonic and Blaze put down earlier. Everyone quickly looked at him and then looked away again, not liking how pale the once usually cheerful hedgehog's face was.

"But what about Katherine…?" Shadow started to argue but stopped at the look in Maria's eyes.

"She can handle herself."

Shadow lowered his head in defeat while Knuckles, Tikal, and Shade dropped the dim Chaos Emeralds on the ground. "Here are the emeralds," Tikal said quietly, "What are we going to do with them?"

Sonic and Shadow stood in front of Silver, both of them looking thoughtfully at the hedgehog. "Actually…" Sonic started to say. "I'm not sure. We were lucky that one time with Windy…"

"Watch out!" Xsus suddenly cried.

Sonic spun around and let out a yelp when he saw Katherine shoot a blast of energy towards Black Doom… who jumped out of the way. The blast continued shooting straight towards the ARK at unbelievable speeds.

"We have to stop it!" Shadow growled.

"No time! Everyone! Take cover!" Sonic cried.

Everyone dived towards the ground as the beam crashed into the building. Shadow pulled Maria to the ground next to him and covered her body with his own. Everyone waited for objects to fall down on top of them but that never happened.

Shadow opened his eyes and looked around in surprise. The entire Stargazing Room looked like someone lit it on fire. Bricks and other random objects were here and there and the glass wall that once showed the view of Earth didn't exist anymore, making it an easy walk into outer space. However, on the other side of the room everything looked fine. Katherine's drawings were still there, covered by the blue curtain, the automatic door was still intact, and what was even stranger was that everyone was still alive around him.

Then, Shadow saw a being standing in front of the rumbled remains. "You…!" The black hedgehog stared as a red hedgehog with black stripes turned to him, lowering the Chaos Shield he had created to protect everyone.

"Oh my gosh… another hedgehog." Knuckles said in disbelief. He lowered his head down onto the metal ground. "Please let this day end…!"

"Hey bro," The hedgehog grinned at Shadow. "Who's the chick fighting Black Doom?"

"Why do you want to know?" Shadow growled as he helped Maria stand. "Besides, how did you even get here?"

"Easy, Chaos Control." The hedgehog said with a shrug.

Shadow growled angrily while Maria's eyes widened. "Chaos…?"

Chaos the hedgehog blinked in surprise as he looked at Maria. "Maria…?"

Shadow pointed at Katherine. "Sister."

"Sister?!"

"This is going to take awhile." Sonic said with a sigh.

"Forget about them! Katherine needs our help _now_!" Sierra growled angrily, bringing everyone's attention to herself. She waved a hand at the wreckage the hedgehog named Chaos didn't manage to block. "We need to find what Black Doom's weakness is before he becomes even more powerful! Shadow, didn't you say that he had another form when you explaining who he was? Something like Devil Darkness or something?"

Shadow blinked in surprise that she wasn't insulting him; she hadn't even give him another one of her crude nicknames. He shook the thought away and crossed his arms stubbornly. "It's Devil Doom. Close though."

"Whatever, anyways, weaknesses! What could be Black Doom's weakness?! The faster we knock him out the easier this will be for _all_ of us! The power of the Chaos Emeralds didn't only turn him back to his normal form but it boosted up his power to _at least_ the strength of even Super Sonic!" Sierra growled and her worlds brought a stunned silence down onto the crew.

"Maybe we could talk to Mr. Doom, maybe he can listen to reason." Cream said hopefully.

Xsus shook his head. "I don't think it's going to work like that Cream."

Sierra growled. "FOCUS!"

Xsus flattened his ears. "Sorry…"

_"Leave him alone." _Xerius growled to her and him and Sierra had a stare down for a few moments until Sonic snapped his fingers, getting both of their attention instantly.

"Fighting isn't going to help us guys! Sierra's right though… although how she knows that the Chaos Emeralds will do that though doesn't make any sense…" Sonic gave her a look.

"I have my resources." Sierra sniffed, saying nothing more.

Maria looked thoughtful. "Wouldn't it… be his… third eye?"

Everyone looked at her and Maria looked at the ground before continuing. "I mean, think about it. His third eye, the third eye for everyone is in between the eye and there are legends where it's the center of the mind, the most focused area of the mind too. If it's true, then if Katherine hits that part then we might stand a chance."

_"It's worth a shot."_ Xerius said as everyone thought over the plan and everyone looked at him in surprise. _"I can't think of a better one. If Katherine's lucky it will knock him out permanently again and we will never have to worry about him."_

Espio nodded his head in agreement. "As soon as that's out of the way we can use the Eclipse Cannon to destroy the comet again."

Xerius nodded in Espio's direction before turning to look at the others.

"Well then, let's give it a shot." Sierra growled she turned and ran towards the edge before lifting her hands to her lips. "HEY KATHERINE!"

-XXXXXXXX-

Ten minutes ago…

_Come on…!_ Katherine thought to herself as she focused another blast onto Black Doom. She blasted and Black Doom easily side stepped it and flew towards her. Katherine focused on her energy and flew upwards, flipping up and over Black Doom before sending another blast at him… only to have it hit nothing as Black Doom Chaos Controlled out of the way.

"You cannot stop me!" Black Doom called behind her. Katherine spun around and glared as Black Doom started laughing. "I still have one form above this that can stop you no matter what you do!"

"Regardless of what you say, I'll keep fighting until I win or I'm dead!" Katherine lifted a fist angrily.

"We can put that into use!" Doom chuckled and then threw a blast her way, which Katherine intercepted with her sword. Doom concentrated then started glowing. "I will call on the power of the Master Emerald and with its power I will unlock my other form, eliminating you and everyone else that's in my way! Just what you have been asking for, eh Katherine?"

Katherine lifted a fist angrily. She knew that if Black Doom transformed into his next form, he would be unstoppable. Katherine was barely able to hold him off on her own at the current moment. Her mind worked over time to think of a plan until a voice called out in her mind. _"Katherine…!"_

"Xerius?" Katherine spun around but didn't see the silent warrior anywhere.

_"No. I am the water element Chaos, I'm guarding the Master Emerald. I am doing everything in my power to stop Black Doom from using the emerald's power but I can't do it alone."_ Chaos said.

"Alright, what can I do?" Katherine asked as Black Doom continued glowing with an unnatural red light.

_"Distract him so he can't focus on absorbing the emerald's power. Give him everything you have. Stop him now before it's too late!"_ Chaos called.

"Got it," Katherine lunged forward by using her energy with her sword raised and rammed her shoulder into the side of Black Doom, she sliced upwards as she did so and watched black and red liquid poor from the wound in his side. Black Doom let out a cry and stopped glowing instantly as he spun away thanks to the fact that there was no gravity in space.

"Y-you!" Black Doom raged as he finally stopped spinning and he lifted a hand towards Katherine. "TAKE THIS!"

Katherine yelped and side jumped as Doom blasted the area she was at with a black beam. As the beam disappeared, Katherine jumped forward again but got smacked in the face and tumbled, falling towards the Earth until she managed to grab hold of a part of the ARK and pulled herself back up.

"You're weak! It's a disgrace to event think that you are related to me!" Black Doom called down to her as Katherine pushed herself back up into battle.

"It's a disgrace to call you my father!" Katherine yelled back as she lifted her sword.

Doom laughed. "I will get what I want and there's nothing you can do about it!"

"You're starting to get on my nerves." Katherine growled as she jumped forward again with her energy and started slicing. Black Doom dodged all her swings as she started ranting, each word she spoke resulted in her sword swinging. "You. Keep. Talking. About. Doing. Things. But. You. Never. Do it!" With this, she finally managed to slice down onto Black Doom's arm, resulting in another wound for the evil lord to roar over.

Katherine found herself breathing heavily as Doom backed away crying out, she was wearing herself out and had to finish this soon. But how? Simply slicing Black Doom wasn't going to be enough and she wasn't fast enough to blast him.

"HEY KATHERINE!" A voice called and Katherine glanced down in surprise to see Sierra peaking out of the remains of the Stargazing room.

"Sierra?!" Katherine blinked in surprise as Black Doom managed to get over his new wound and glare at Katherine once more.

"Hit his third eye!" Sierra called, cupping her hands over her mouth. "That's his weakness!"

"His third eye…?" Katherine frowned and then her eyes widened with realization. She snapped her fingers, completely forgetting about the battle for a moment. "Of course! It's like reading between the lines but this time it's his eyes…! It makes perfect sense!"

"Katherine! Stop sitting there like an idiot he's going to…!" Sierra never finished her remark because by then it was too late. Black Doom jumped forward and punched Katherine the jaw, sending her hurtling towards the Earth.

**Quote for the Story: "It is a man's own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways." –Buddha**

**Another chapter done! Thanks for reading again and…**

**Strife the Dark 152 "Blackie, it's your turn."**

**BlackSandHeart *dryly* "Haha. K, this is a group one. Any of you have any…?"**

**Katherine *runs forward and then slides to a stop* "What the…?!"**

**Storm *smiles big* "Katherine! You got your memory back!"**

**Katherine *laughs weakly* "Haha… how did you find out about that…?"**

**Amicus "The fourth wall is broken."**

**Katherine *nods* "Ah…"**

**UnknownFollower "So, you were saying…?"**

**Zap *suddenly walks in after Katherine and then pales as Maraya jumps to her feet to hug him***

**BlackSandHeart *sighs as Maraya tackle hugs Zap* "Anyways, hope you liked the disclaimer (and I hope that I got all you guys right… if not, sorry!) and the story. Please review and I hope to see you when the next chapter comes around!"**


	15. The End is Near?

**Sierra "I say we blast the wall to pieces still… and if not small pieces I'm sure a sledgehammer will make the pieces a bit bigger."**

**Zap *glares* "Sierra, they're just mice."**

**Me *sighs* "Remember back in Shadow's Gathering when I told you guys there was something in my wall? Well we got that checked and found out that mice are living in the wall."**

**Sierra *dark grin* "Maybe we should let Zap chase them. Then a true game of cat and mouse it shall be!"**

**Me *sighs* "Sierra, you're a cat too. Okay, moving on, thanks to my crazy writing Ohama for reviewing: raeweis, Strife, Chaos, UnknownFollower, Rya, Storm, and Amicus!**

**Raeweis= You're back! Good to have you back too! ^^ Yeah, so Sierra's helping everyone out which is totally unexpected of her. I just hope it stays that way… haha. Thanks for the review my Canucks fan! (Oh my mom laughed when I told her what you said about that being a fan...)**

**Strife= Lol you're not the only one that's noticed that… I noticed that too…  
That's by far one of the best short story ideas ever and besides, I think I owe everyone on here one. We should have a Sierra vs. Us or something, I'll think of something but I'll let cha know when I get it up. And those are **_**still**_** flipping awesome moments.**

**Chaos= Amigo Haha! Glad you liked it, Chaos! It was actually a lot of fun writing that disclaimer! I enjoyed having all of us interact in weird ways.  
Xsus *hands over Nightshade* "Here you go Water Boy…"  
You went on a Harry Potter studio tour? Oh you lucky duck…! Pssh, when I visit England one of these days… *shakes head slowly* Either way, I'm glad your liking the song! Means a lot when I pick a good song out for people haha.  
Katherine "She does seem like that. Humph, maybe if I knock her on the head hard enough…" *teleports out of the way as Jewel charges past then reappears like nothing happened* "…she would finally get the point."**

**UnknownFollower= Glad you liked the disclaimer! One of these days I will force my sister to sit down and we will play go fish with face cards XD. Until then, it was still fun doing it with you guys (in a weird way) in the disclaimer. Yeah, the third eye, it kind of came to me while typing and I was like: brilliant! Thanks for telling me I'm doing good, it means a lot, really!**

**Rya= Hmmm… I've never thought of actually doing that but maybe in one story it could happen accidentally, I see it more of an accident thing then on purpose haha. Dang on all of your guesses some were really close and a few hit dead on… (but I can't tell you which ones…! No!) Lol, I guess instead of stabbing his third eye or something Katherine should just **_**push**_** him away lol! That's hilarious! And yeah, Black Doom is, let's face it, a terrible father while Sierra points out the hilarious obvious XD  
Zap *blinks slowly then laughs***

**Storm= I know! What's with her falling off things! She's almost as bad as Flame… *laughs at the memories of Shadows Gathering*  
Katherine "Nice…!"**

**Amicus= Glad you liked the disclaimers! They're hilarious to write most of the time! And glad to keep you laughing during the chapter, that means it was good and worthwhile writing! Haha, Chaos will be glad to know so many liked his OC (the reviewer). And yes *guilty look then laughs* I like giving people cliffhangers.  
Katherine "I win! Ahaha!"  
Windy "That's not always a good thing, Katherine. Besides, you won the most near death experiences."  
Xsus *blinks as they get locked in the closet then blinks again when you poke him then grins big. Then he pokes you back***

**Disclaimer= (I said if someone else reviewed I'd do it again, if someone new reviews I'll add you in it too)  
Blackie "The blasted fourth wall isn't fixed yet…"  
Strife "Because **_**someone **_**hasn't done anything about it yet**_**…**_**"  
Zap "Pardon me… hey! Maraya! Don't what are you doing?"  
Maraya "I'm writing the disclaimer on the part of the wall that isn't broken! What does it look like I'm doing?"  
Storm *lifts up a paintbrush proudly* "We can color it to make it look better!"  
Raeweis *picks up another paintbrush* "Do you think we could spray paint it?"  
Amicus "I got it...!" *lifts up can of spray paint*  
Chaos *looks at the wall* "'Sonic and co belong to SEGA, Chaos belongs to me, BlackSandHeart owns the Dimension Jumpers'… looks good Rya!"  
Maraya *glances back and gives a thumbs up with a grin as Storm and raeweis jump forward to paint on the wall*  
UnknownFollower "I think the wall's going to fall over soon thanks to Maraya and her chiseled disclaimer…"  
*CRASH!***

CHAPTER FIFTEEN= THE END IS NEAR…?

Katherine closed her eyes tightly as she fell head over heels towards the Earth far below. She heard stories from Shadow about falling to Earth then not being able to remember anything again. Was that going to be her case? Another case of Amnesia?

Katherine mentally wondered if it was the Black Arms blood that was the cause of amnesia in the family.

The Light Giver opened her eyes and saw the ARK spinning away from her and Black Doom's laughter echoed in her ears. She couldn't give up on them yet! They needed their help.

_"Hit his third eye! That's his weakness!"_ Sierra had said to her.

She had to stop her fall… but how? This was space. There wasn't exactly anything to grab a hold to stop her fall.

Suddenly, familiar words flashed through her mind: "_Remember this, and don't forget again."_ Windy had said that didn't she? Remember this and don't forget again… what could that possibly mean? Remember the image or remember what happened, or remember in general?

"_You're thinking too hard about this." _Katherine could literally hear Zap telling her that. The Forest of the Forgotten, huh? Could there possibly…?

An idea flashed through Katherine's mind and she grinned darkly. "Got it," She said to herself. She could use an old move. A move that no one had done in years, and was long since forgotten. Windy showed her it years ago but she wasn't good at it since even _she_ was forgetting the main techniques of the move, besides, it was one of the most dangerous attacks a Light Giver could do, it was known to backfire easily. That was the main reason why almost everyone forgot about it.

_Okay… here goes nothing…_ Katherine closed her eyes and concentrated. Focusing on the light around here and willing it to all come together. The move was wasting tons of her energy and she knew she was only going to be able to do this once.

This was going to be a one shot move that could result death.

Katherine opened her eyes and felt something suddenly become solid underneath her and yank her back up towards the Space Colony ARK. Katherine yelped as she almost fell off the dragon she conjured up out of light— the most dangerous move of all Light Givers.

The dragon let out a strange electronic sounding roar and flew up towards Black Doom. Above her, everyone looked down to see her coming and started cheering, except Doom. He let out a cry of surprise and started shooting black beams of energy at her frantically but all missed their mark as the dragon used its accuracy to dodge all of them. Katherine held out her sword tightly and leaned forward on the dragon, willing it to go faster, which it did at a price of more of her energy being sapped.

A smirk appeared on Katherine's face as the dragon dodged another blow by doing a barrel roll to the left then the right and then Doom focused another blast and hit the dragon, but the dragon exploded into a blast of light that shot off in all directions, throwing Katherine forward instead, keeping her charge on Black Doom.

"WHAT?! NOOOO!" Black Doom cried as Katherine pointed her sword forward and closed her eyes… then flew right _through_ Black Doom's third eye like his body was made out of a sheet of paper.

Katherine looked back at the mess of Black Doom's head and winced. However, Black Doom managed to stay somewhat standing and he glared back at Katherine. "You… cannot… stop me…" He somehow managed to say.

Katherine shook her head slowly. "Sorry _dad_, but you're forgetting an important detail."

"What… might that be?"

Katherine lifted Black Doom's black Soul Emerald, "This."

"What?! How…!"

"I grabbed it while I went through your head. Try to hide it in a better spot then in your pocket." Katherine snickered. And with that, she clenched her hands around the emerald and smashed it in her hands, sending pieces of shattered emerald flying out into the universe.

The monster known as Black Doom froze then started floating downwards towards Earth, flipping slowly head over heels with an expressionless face. Then, he exploded into darkness, sending bits and pieces of the darkness everywhere. Black Doom was finished, forever.

Katherine found herself breathing heavily and grinned… until she heard a bunch of little shouts and cries. Katherine glanced over in surprise as she saw at least a million black bats and other minions of Black Doom's charging towards her.

"Oh you have got to be…! Oh whatever!" Katherine turned to the monsters and charged once again. As soon as she reached the little monsters, she started hacking her way through them, feeling her energy slowly fading into nothing.

-XXXXXXXX-

"Black Doom's gone… but that doesn't stop the threat!" Vector said, lifting a fist. "I propose we bring out the Eclipse Cannon and blast the comet out of existence again!"

"I like that idea." Sierra said with a shrug as she turned to the others, tearing her attention away from Katherine as she held off millions of monsters on her own. "They're starting to get on my nerves too."

"I want to help out Katherine," Chaos said, stepping forward.

"I'll help," Shadow nodded in agreement.

"I'll come too!" Maria took a step forward, hope flashing through her eyes for a moment.

Chaos turned to her in surprise. "Maria! No, you have to stay here. I don't want you to get hurt again like last time."

"But…!"

"No buts, please, Maria?"

Maria nodded, looking sad for a moment as she turned to follow the others out of the room towards the main engine room of the ARK to work on the cannon.

As she turned though, a voice made all of them stop and look back. "What about Silver?" Blaze the cat managed to choke out. Everyone looked at her in surprise as they saw her next to the dead hedgehog with tears drying on her cheeks. The cat refused to leave the hedgehog's side when he was dead and hadn't moved a muscle to help the others out yet, even during the blast.

Chase took a deep breath. "Don't take this the wrong way Blaze… but we should probably leave him here."

"Chase!" Ria turned to him angrily, lifting her fists. "He's our friend! How _dare_ you say that!"

Chase flinched. "No, no! I don't mean it like that at all! We need to focus on the main objective, to help Katherine out! Dragging Silver along will slow Blaze down and we need all the help we can get or else we can add _two_ people on our dead list."

Xerius growled as he marched forward. _"Sometimes I wonder about your sanity, Chase."_ He bent down next to Silver and Blaze before carefully lifting the dead hedgehog onto his shoulder before looking at Chase with dark brown eyes.

Chase sighed. "You know what I mean! I didn't mean it like that! I'm just saying it might slow us down and we need all the help we can get…"

Jason shook his head and stepped forward. "Alright, enough people. Sitting here arguing is wasting our time as well. Let's get out of here and get to the cannon."

Chase sighed and then walked forward, taking Silver off Xerius' shoulder onto his own shoulder after giving Xerius an annoyed look. "You know what I meant."

Xerius shook his head slowly as Chase ran after the group as they left, heading towards the main engine room and Silver hanging over his shoulder. After a moment, Xerius ran after the group, leaving the hedgehogs behind.

Chaos watched them go and Shadow scowled at him. "Maria's going to get you for that one."

"I know, I know." Chaos muttered.

"Do you guys know each other or something?" A voice asked and both hedgehogs looked over to see Sonic grinning mischievously.

"Faker…" Shadow growled angrily but Chaos gave him a look and that shut up the hedgehog up, but he did get a dark glare from Shadow.

Chaos waved a hand at Shadow. "Did Shadow not tell you who I am? Or even Katherine for that matter?"

Sonic shook his head.

Chaos took a deep breath. "Well then… I'm Katherine and Shadow's other brother."

Sonic's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "WHAT?!"

-XXXXXXXX-

"It's this way! I'm telling you!" Vector yelled to Espio as he, Espio, and Charmy led the way to the main cannon room of the ARK.

"No, it's not. It's that way." Espio snapped, jerking his thumb backwards.

"You're both wrong!" Maria called back as she finally caught up with the others. "It's _this_ way." She took a sharp right and everyone stopped, turned, and ran after her. A few twists and turns down the long hallways and Maria slid to a stop before a tall door.

"I told you it was this way." Espio said as he crossed his arms.

"No you didn't…!" Vector started to argue but stopped short when the automatic door opened, because his jaw then dropped in shock. Inside there were hundreds of buttons and a large jumbo screen board that showed the view of Earth from outer space. Maria walked inside and looked around.

"Last time I was here… things were brighter." She muttered to herself.

"Don't worry about it, hun!" Rouge said as she took a step forward. "Let's just blow these Black Arms people out of the sky first!"

"Alright," Sierra took a step forward too and glared at all the buttons. "Which one blows the place up though?"

Everyone looked at Maria, who shook her head sadly. "Grandfather never showed me how to use the Eclipse Cannon."

Espio and Vector looked at Charmy.

"What?! Last time it was a total accident!" Charmy said.

"Come on Charmy!" Xsus took a step forward and grinned. "If you did it last time I'm sure you can do it again this time!"

Charmy laughed. "But it was a complete accident though!"

Xerius shook his head and gave the bee a dark look before waving a hand at the countless buttons. _"Try again."_

Charmy shrugged. "But I'm telling you, I don't know how I did it!"

Maria frowned. "I wish grandfather was here… he would know which button to press."

Xsus took a step forward and stared at the multicolored buttons and then turned back to everyone with a grin. "I know! We could… um…" Xsus' grin faded and he looked at the buttons. It was around then when his innocence took over his intelligence. He lifted a finger and pressed a nearby red button with big eyes. "What's this button do?"

"_Thirty minutes until Self Destruct." _A female voice suddenly called over the announcements and everyone paled.

"XSUS!" Chase yelled and tackled the boy. The two rolled around on the ground as Xerius jumped forward and practically threw Chase of Xsus. Chase hit the wall with a sickening thud and slid to the floor.

Xerius growled at Chase as the boy turned towards him angrily. Xsus got to his feet looking stunned as Xerius spoke angrily. _"He didn't mean to! He's only ten, remember that Chase!"_

"Pardon me! But shouldn't he know better than touching the buttons?! We don't know how any of these buttons work and the ARK is going to explode in a half hour!" Chase growled.

"STOP IT!" Ria jumped forward and got in between Chase and Xerius. She glared at both of them as Jason took a step forward.

"Come on, guys, fighting is not the option. Let's work together to stop this place from blowing up with us on it and get the Eclipse Cannon to work." Jason said to them.

Xerius and Chase both took a step back, but threw each other glares that were as sharp as knives at each other before turning away.

Jason sighed and turned to the others. "So, how are we going to get the cannon to work?"

Maria looked thoughtful. "Well, if grandpa wanted to build the cannon, he would probably want it to be in a clever spot... obvious to find but at the same time not obvious."

Sierra skimmed over the buttons with a dark look in her blue eyes. "It will take us _years_ to find the right button, girl. Which one is it?"

Maria shook her head. "I'm telling you, I don't know!"

Charmy jumped forward excitedly. "What's this button do?"

"NO!" Everyone but Xsus and Charmy yelled.

"_Self destruct system has been turned off. Have a nice day." _A female robotic voice said. Sierra scowled at the ceiling as the voice finished speaking.

"Now that's just annoying." Chase grumbled, also scowling at the ceiling.

"Alright, now let's look for the button that can control the Eclipse Cannon before we blow ourselves up," Knuckles said dryly.

The group began searching until a bright green button caught Maria's eye. She turned to it with a frown then noticed the others looking at her. "What?" Maria shrugged and then she flashed a grin at all of them. "What's this button do?" Then she pressed the button.

"_Eclipse Cannon ready to fire. Where do you wish to fire?"_ A female voice asked. A sudden satellite view of the Earth, the ARK, and the Black Comet appeared on the jumbo screen. Maria's eyes narrowed as she reached out and touched the image of the Black Comet. The image faded in and out like a puddle and suddenly, the sound of rumbling was heard. _"Preparing to fire at the Black Comet,"_ The female voice said.

"What's going on?!" Ria cried as the rumbling grew louder.

"What's the meaning of this?" Blaze called as she struggled to stand on her feet as she stood close to Silver's body that Chase had set down earlier.

"The Eclipse Cannon is going to fire at the comet!" Maria cried. "We have to warn the ones outside!"

"I got it." Sierra said calmly. Everyone looked at her as she walked down the hallway like this was a walk in the park. Sierra looked back at all of them, snapped, and vanished.

-XXXXXXXX-

_Five minutes ago…_

"Chaos?!" Katherine cried as she saw the familiar red hedgehog. She practically jumped into the hedgehog's arms and hugged him tightly. Shadow smiled faintly next to Sonic as all of them practically floated uselessly in space. Most of the bats had been hacked away to nothing by now but the rest were regrouping for another attack, giving them a moment of relaxation.

"Hey, Katherine," Chaos said quietly.

"By the Light Givers, I thought you were dead." Katherine muttered. "When you left after your trip to our dimension… Shadow said he hadn't seen you in years and…! Oh, whatever, I'm just glad you're back."

"So, how many siblings do you _really_ have?" Sonic said to Shadow dryly.

"You can ask that question later, Faker. We have better things to be worrying about." Shadow said dryly. The entire crew turned towards the charging monsters and frowned at the monsters they were facing. Katherine suddenly stopped glowing golden and started panting heavily.

"You okay?" Chaos asked nervously.

Katherine showed him a thumbs up but didn't lift her head to look at him.

Sonic turned towards the bats. "Everyone get ready!"

Katherine took a deep breath and stood up tall. She looked at the others and held onto her sword tightly. "To the end, friends?" She whispered to Sonic, Shadow, and Chaos.

"To the end," Chaos nodded.

Shadow also nodded while Sonic gave Katherine a funny look.

The bats charged forward, growing into bigger numbers as the hedgehogs and cat prepared themselves for a fight to the death. Suddenly, they heard a grinding sound and everyone looked towards the ARK to see it slowly shifting and changing before their very eyes. After a moment, a large gun appeared from the folds deep within the metal and pointed it towards the Black Comet.

"What is _that_?!" Katherine yelped.

"The Eclipse Cannon!" Sonic gasped.

Shadow growled angrily. "The others are going to use it to blast the comet out of existence again. If we stay here we're going to be blown into tiny bits floating uselessly around the universe thanks to the cannon's blast!"

Chaos gave his brother a look. "Thanks for the gruesome image, Shadow."

"Your welcome, Chaos," Shadow grumbled.

"Enough bickering!" Katherine waved a finger at them, but was still breathing heavily so her sisterly advice was probably being missed by her brothers.

Suddenly, appearing next to Katherine appeared Sierra. She glared at all of them and then grabbed Sonic's arm. "Get out now. Or you'll be blow to smithereens. Like I care though. I don't want to be alternatively related to any of you." With that, she vanished, taking a stunned blue hedgehog with her.

"Who's she?" Chaos asked.

"No time for questions, we need to get out of here now!" Shadow yelled he grabbed onto Katherine and Chaos hands just as they heard a rumbling sound. All three looked towards the cannon to see it charging up and glowing with blue light.

"Chaos…!" All three started yelling, turning their attention away from the ARK and to each other, looking into each other's eyes. Crimson, sky blue, and aqua blue eyes stared at each other for a moment.

Then, the blue beam let out a blast and shot right through the comet, like the thing was made out of nothing but air. The beam continued, past the ARK and out into outer space. From there, it hit something unknown and the unknown object exploded in a massive bright light. The Black Comet then exploded too and sent a double explosion rocketing towards the farthest reaches of space, killing all of Black Doom's bats and henchmen instantly and spinning the ARK in a full circle uselessly, almost knocking it off orbit in the process.

-XXXXXXX-

Maria struggled to her feet after the blast and as soon as the ARK stopped spinning. She looked around the shattered remains of the comet but didn't see the faces of Katherine, Shadow, or Chaos. "What?! No!"

Sierra appeared with Sonic in tow and let him go. The blue blur stumbled away as Sierra crossed her arms with a scowl. When she noticed everyone glaring at her as they realized she didn't take Katherine, Shadow, or Chaos with her, she took a deep breath. "Do you know how much _energy_ it takes to teleport yourself, even worse when you have to teleport two people?"

"But you look completely fine." Chase growled angrily.

Sierra rolled her eyes. "When you teleport two people, come back to me and we can argue about this again."

Sonic looked around frantically. "Wait, did Shadow and his sibs make it?"

Maria put a hand to her mouth to resist choking out a sob while Xerius shook his head no. Was this what it was like when she left? This terrible, empty, lonely feeling? If it was, then Maria finally understood why Shadow was dark all the time and Katherine sometimes went into a quiet rage mode along with Chaos.

Then, there was the sound of crying and everyone looked over to see Cream, Cheese, Xsus, and Charmy wailing like the kids they were, crying anime style with their tears slowly forming a puddle on the floor as they wailed.

"Who was that red hedgehog anyways?" Amy wondered aloud.

Maria closed her eyes and dropped to her knees. "H-he… he was known as Chaos, the Original Life Form… he was built before Shadow as a test subject but when grandfather worked on Shadow he made different plans, making Shadow more of a Chaos fighter then Chaos was. Shadow, Katherine, and Chaos are like a three way family, siblings… well they were supposed to be."

"So… Chaos is just another member of the family?" Knuckles asked thoughtfully.

Maria nodded.

Rouge put a hand on her hip. "Then why didn't Shadow or Katherine tell us about his brother?"

"We all thought he was dead." Maria bit her lip to avoid tearing up. "No one likes talking about the dead."

There was a moment of silence as everyone stared solemnly at the ground, knowing that was true.

Sonic suddenly snapped. "I have an idea…!"

Everyone looked at him in surprise as Sonic turned to all of them. "Remember a few years ago when Windy was killed? We used the Chaos Emeralds to bring her back to life like we did with me when Mephiles attacked! We can use the Chaos Emeralds to bring them back!"

"And Silver too!" Blaze's eyes lit up hopefully as Sonic nodded.

"We can bring them back, all of them! Well… that is if they're really dead… um… Tails?" Sonic turned to his adopted little brother.

Tails pulled out the machine he had used to track Katherine's energy from his tails and pressed a button. A small satellite appeared and everyone waited patiently… after a moment the light flashed red and everyone's hopes dampened.

"Dead…" Tails said sadly and as he spoke, he put the machine away slowly.

"Then let's try it out with the emeralds, Knuckles?" Sonic turned to the echidna as Knuckles pulled the faded colored Chaos Emeralds out along with Tikal and Shade.

"But the emeralds…! They're out of energy! And besides, Katherine, Shadow, and Chaos' bodies aren't anywhere to be found!" Knuckles argued.

"If we work together then I'm sure it will work. Now who's with me?" Sonic lifted a fist and everyone joined in after a moment of thought, cheering.

Then, their cheering made the emeralds glowed with new kind of light.

**Quote for the Story: "Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting." –Napoleon Hill**

**Zap "Alright! Enough about the mice! Let's talk about something else… like BlackSandHeart here writing a thirteen paged Narrative Essay while the second person with the highest amount was six pages? Talk about overachieving, SandHeart."**

**Me *sighs in disbelief* "Why won't you people let me forget about that?! Besides, it could be written as a story and I did just that!"**

**Zap "Because it was hilarious seeing the look on everyone's faces when you told them!"**

**Me "Oh shut it!"**

**Zap and Sierra *starts laughing***

**Me *glares then sighs again* "Whatever… okay, so you people know the drill. Please review and I'll see you when the next chapter comes out!"**


	16. The ARK

**Me *sighs* "El lobo come la familia."**

**Katherine "The wolf eats the family… wait, what?! Eats the family?! That's terrible!"**

**Flame *busts up laughing***

**Katherine "By the Light Givers what are they teaching you in Spanish class…?"**

**Me *shrugs* "Well the wolf didn't eat my Ohama because they all reviewed. Anyways, I wrote the beginning of this at like… midnight haha. So, thanks to Strife, Amicus, Chaos…" *looks at Katherine as she glances over* "…raeweis, Rya, UnknownFollower, and Storm!"**

**Chaos= Okay, screw it. I don't care if people say these things don't work I'm trying it anyways: *gives you a long distance hug*. Look, it isn't your fault. You weren't the one who deliberately put your cat in the middle of the road to give it that fate… maybe it was his time to move on… hey Katherine… are you okay?  
Katherine *wipes away a tear stubbornly* "I'm a cat too, SandHeart."  
Oh yeah… so, *coughs* as I was saying, it isn't your fault. Being harsh on yourself won't make it any easier. Death is a natural part of life we must all accept it... even if it hurts us to the core.  
Xsus *jumps forward* "You dare throw Nightshade?!"  
Katherine *wipes away another tear and jumps to her feet, spinning onto Jewel* "Alright, I'm with you now, bro. Oh, and that never happened… Chaos Blast!" *blasts Jewel and watches as she flies backwards* "Some girl trying to be yours, humph, she better make friends with the author first before she tries that move out." *shakes head while looking annoyed*  
Thanks for the song recommendations, Chaos, they were good again, as always, heh. Light be with you friend... and I hope I helped a bit. Remember, it wasn't your fault.**

**UknownFollower= Lol here here! All of us vs. Sierra, we'd win easy!  
Sierra "Whatever...!"  
Me "You know it's true. Anyways, yes Black Doom is dead (finally)... but it came at a price... thanks for the review UnknownFollower! And I hope you like this chapter too!"**

**Raeweis= Glad you liked this chapter too! Lol, yeah I wanted to add that in because it's true. Amnesia runs in the family haha. No...! Don't cry! No! Here's the next chapter...!**

**Amicus= Lol idk if I'd trust you with spray paint... it depends on what you'd do haha. One more chapter huh...? Haha, anyways, yes! Black Doom deserved to go out like that, he did do some pretty terrible things. And yes. WHO'S DOOMED NOW FOOL?! XD  
Katherine "Aha! First place!"  
Silver "Haha, you cheated...!"  
Sonic "Ah third," *shrugs* "It was fun while it lasted..."  
Xsus *watches the OC come out of the closet, pokes you again, then stares at the lightsaber in amazement* "Can I touch that...?"**

**Strife= So yes, Katherine crushed Black Doom's soul... scary thought, what if someone did that to her Soul Emerald...? Anyways, here's the next chapter and hope your cousin's place is fun!  
Katherine *annoyed look* "You're hilarious, Strife."**

**Storm= Lol, good question about Charmy. How **_**did**_** he find the anti-self destruct button...?  
Zap "Now that is quite impressive, Storm."  
Katherine *lifts up a thumbs up* "Thou art quite welcome." *laughs***

**Rya= Lol I wanna tell you soooo badly! *sighs* I could tell you that the ending's...  
Katherine "SandHeart!"  
Me *looks over in surprise* "Sorry sorry! Okay, guess I can't... anyways, yeah there is no logical way for Sierra to become a Light Giver and when she goes against Zap they have the most funniest arguments I have ever seen. And that's true... why **_**do**_** self destruct buttons exist...? '06... *shakes head slowly* Why must Mephiles be such a good bad guy...?"  
Katherine *laughs weakly* "Sorry...! He had to die and that was one of the only options we had!"  
Xsus "Yep! He's the best older brother I could ask for! At least your friends will help you out if you asked for it!"  
Lol duct tape! Now to fix the wall! Come on, Rya!**

**DISCLAIMER= (I think I'll keep this kind of disclaimer going till the story's done *laughs* also thanks to my Ohama (humph think twice if I'm going to count a certain reviewer...) for going past my record of how many reviews to a story, we beat Shadow's Gathering!)  
Zap "Maraya can you give me the duct tape…?"  
Maraya *lifts purple duct tape up proudly as Amicus spray paints the fallen over wall while laughing with Raeweis and Storm, trying to draw Shadow the hedgehog on it*  
Strife "Hey… look… Maraya's disclaimer from the last chapter is still intact, that's impressive. Sonic and co are SEGA's, Chaos belongs to Chaosthehedgehog, and the Dimension Jumpers belong to Blackie."  
Blackie "I heard that!"  
Strife "That's good."  
BlackSandHeart *scowls and shakes head slowly*  
Amicus "Maybe we could build a new wall instead, it'll be much easier…"  
Zap "One cannot simply 'build a new fourth wall'…"  
Storm "I **_**love **_**that movie!"  
Maraya "Me too!"  
Storm "SandHeart! We're watching that movie as soon as this wall is put up…"  
Chaos "Ooo! I'll bring the popcorn, of course!"  
UnknownFollower "Is it a bad thing if some of us haven't seen that movie either…?"  
Raeweis *grins* "Maybe we can watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail too when we're done."  
BlackSandHeart "I **_**love**_** that movie!"**

CHAPTER SIXTEEN= THE ARK

As they cheered, the emeralds glowed with a new kind of light. Everyone stopped their cheers to stare as the emeralds glowed brighter and suddenly, in a flash of blinding light, four familiar figures suddenly appeared standing.

There was a moment of silence until one of the figures glanced to their left. "Silver?!" Katherine cried and she jumped forward and hugged the light out of the white hedgehog. "You're okay!"

Silver took a stunned step back as Chaos started laughing and Shadow rolled his eyes in disbelief.

"What… just happened?" Jason asked slowly.

"The Chaos Emeralds… our cheering must've powered up the emeralds and the Chaos Emeralds returned Shadow, Katherine, Chaos, and Silver to us!" Shade said thoughtfully, she smiled after a moment and nodded, liking her idea.

The others nodded in agreement, the idea made perfect sense.

Maria ran forward and hugged Chaos tightly and then hugged Shadow as everyone else jumped forward and gave the four their welcomes, finally letting the feeling of peace settle down upon all of them.

"You're such a jerk." Katherine grumbled with a mischievous light in her eyes as she turned to Silver.

Silver chuckled weakly. "What? I just died and the first thing you can say to me is call me a jerk?"

Katherine scowled as she looked at Silver in the eye. "It wasn't funny… you scared me actually."

Silver frowned. "I… did?"

"Yes you did!" Katherine rolled her eyes and then gave him another quick hug. Silver glanced nervously at Shadow, who gave him a look before looking away quickly. With that, Silver smiled and returned the hug while Chaos blinked slowly like he couldn't believe this was happening.

Xsus grinned and started pulling out a camera from his pocket… but stopped when he noticed Xerius glaring at him. Xsus flattened his ears and put the camera away again before doing a little happy celebration dance with Cream and Charmy while Xerius rolled his eyes.

_Looks like my dream was wrong…_ Xerius thought to himself with a sigh of relief. _It looks like things will turn out fine after all…_

"How about a tour of the ARK? I want to see the place you grew up in." Ria said happily, punching Katherine's shoulder playfully.

Katherine grinned weakly. "Alright, alright! Calm down, Ria! I'll give you a tour!"

Ria smiled while a few of the others gave out another cheer.

"Chaos," Katherine waved a hand to her other brother.

Chaos grinned and started leading the way with Shadow and Katherine following right behind him. Maria jumped forward and walked alongside Chaos while the others looked at each other, shrugged, and followed.

"It's so much easier now remembering everything…" Katherine mused to herself as she looked around the hallways of the ARK as they left the main room behind them. "I actually know the importance of this Space Colony now."

"Now the question is… can you remember not to get hit by this?!" With that, Chaos threw a playful punch Katherine's direction who ducked at the last moment. She stood up and gave her brother an annoyed look.

"Oh come on! Was that really necessary, Chaos?" Katherine said.

"Maybe…!" Chaos grinned cockily.

"Oh come here you!" Katherine tackled her brother and the two started rolling around on the floor throwing punches at each other while laughing.

Shadow shook his head sadly; he sometimes couldn't believe he knew these two.

Sierra sighed in disbelief. "Can we please get a move on? You two are starting to bore me already."

Sonic grinned at Sierra. "Come on, Sierra. Let them have their fun, besides they haven't seen each other in a couple hundred years."

Sierra punched Sonic's arm with a scowl.

"Ow! Hey! What was that for?!" Sonic yelped as he started rubbing his arm.

"I don't know, maybe to pass the time away." Sierra muttered. She crossed her arms and gave Sonic an icy blue eyed look, as if daring for him to defy her.

Sonic chuckled and stopped rubbing his arm, resulting in Sierra raising an eyebrow in confusion.

Chaos managed to pin Katherine down and he grinned. "Ten points for me, nothing for you Katherine."

Katherine glared at him but showed a playful grin. "I'll get you back just you wait, Chaos. I _did_ just manage to take out Black Doom by myself."

Shadow shook his head. "Let's get a move on. You two can finish this argument later."

Maria gave both a look as Katherine shoved Chaos off of her and teleported back to her feet. She brushed dust off her shoulders as Chaos stood up and walked away with Maria standing close to him. The others followed after a moment of pause.

They walked onward, with the four from the ARK pointing out their favorite spots they had and where everything was while starting some family arguments with each other along the way, with Chaos starting most of them. They finally stopped at the forest again and the crew gazed up at the trees thoughtfully for a long moment.

"Alright, that's far enough." A new voice suddenly said.

Everyone spun around to see Zap with his arms crossed and dark blue eyes narrowed, showing the zigzag scar on his face easily.

"Zap!" Jason's eyes widened in surprise, "You're here!"

Xsus jumped up and down excitedly. "Zap! You missed it! Katherine went all super and then went after Black Doom and swoosh! Slash! Bam! He was knocked out the sky like… like… a firework! Then the ARK became a cannon and it killed Shadow, Katherine, and this new hedgehog named Chaos— who happens to be related to Shadow and Katherine, isn't that weird?— while blowing up the Black Comet creating this _huge_ explosion! You should've been there! It was amazing!" As he said the words 'firework' and 'explosion' he spread his hands out wide in mockery of the explosions.

Zap raised an eyebrow, unimpressed, "Must've been. But all of you have missed a _very_ important detail."

Everyone stayed silent, waiting for Zap to go on.

"Like the fact that Katherine's almost dead?"

A stunned moment of silence and everyone looked back at the cat as her eyes widened then narrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?" She growled, lifting a fist. "I'm anything _but_ dead thank you very much."

Zap said nothing, but he did cross his arms, inspecting Katherine with a frown.

Katherine started walking towards Zap, lifting her hands up as she spoke. "See? Look, I'm totally fine. I might look a bit different but I'm fine. You can't just accuse people of something that's totally wrong—" Katherine stopped short in her sentence and let out a strangled gasp.

Zap did nothing as Katherine stumbled forward and passed out cold, falling onto Zap's shoulder, who just looked mildly annoyed by the action. He managed to hold her up with his arm while looking at the others with a serious look on his face.

"Wh—what did you do?!" Chaos demanded, paling at Katherine's unconscious form. Chaos lifted a fist and charged at Zap but suddenly slid to a stop when Sierra appeared in front of him with a smirk on her face.

"Calm down, hedgehog, if he wanted to kill her he would've killed her three hundred years ago." She said while folding her arms.

Chaos glared at Sierra while Maria walked up and took Chaos' hand in her own. Chaos looked back at her as she shook her head. "Zap knows what he's doing, Chaos."

"Chaos knows." Zap sniffed. "We're well acquainted, aren't we Chaos?"

Chaos glared at Zap and took a deep breath, "Fine. But if you do one thing…!"

Zap now looked annoyed, "I won't. Calm down, Chaos."

Shadow took a step forward. "I side with Chaos on this one, Zap if you…"

Windy then walked through the door with her arms crossed. Everyone looked at her in surprise as she walked into the room proudly with her head held high. "Look, Zap won't do anything to harm Katherine. I'll make sure of it."

Zap sighed. "Finally! Someone's listening to me."

Windy turned to Zap, ignoring the comment. "Alright, if we want to use the spell that book has we better do it now before day three comes around and Katherine's dead."

Zap nodded while the others went silent, obviously confused on what was going on between the two. He snapped his fingers with his free hand and held out a hand for a moment... but nothing happened. He frowned and then snapped again but still nothing happened. "Oh no..." He said after a pause.

Windy frowned, her eyes widening as she watched Zap snap a third time but nothing happened still. "What is it?!"

"The book...! The one from the library that had the spell that could save Katherine... it's gone!" Zap said, his eyes widening in shock as he lowered his hand and stared at Windy.

Windy paled and then snapped her fingers, her eyes slowly becoming darker with rage. "FD! I knew that little liar set us up...!"

Sierra smirked as she turned around to face them. "Heh, looks like the master has fooled you two again."

Windy glared at Sierra. "He did not fool us!"

Sierra rolled her eyes. "Oh really? Then where's your book?"

Windy growled angrily and turned away from Sierra as the girl smirked proudly.

Sonic paled. "So wait, your saying that you have no way to save Katherine?"

Zap turned to Sonic but didn't say anything the look in his dark blue eyes was similar to panic and it was taking all his willpower not to go insane.

"Is Katherine going to die...?" Xsus flattened his ears and tears formed in the corners of them as Zap didn't say anything.

Zap growled quietly to himself and shook his head slowly as he carefully set Katherine on the ground in front of him. He closed his eyes and looked away to a tree in the distance. "There's nothing we can do… without that book, she's going to die."

**Quote for the Story: "A friend who dies, it's something of you who dies." –Gustave Flaubert**

**Flame *still laughing***

**Katherine "You're terrible Flame."**

**Flame *stops laughing and glares* "Oh shut it, Kathy, can't I just laugh?"**

**Katherine "No."**

**Flame "Oh really…?!"**

**Katherine and Flame *both pull out their swords and jump to their feet while I sigh* "Anyways, you guys know what to do. Please review, even if you never had before. I'll see you people when the next chapter comes out! Flame! Katherine! Both of you better not slice the house to bits…!"**


	17. Decisions

**Zap "The worst thing to say to someone when they're on their death bed would be…?"**

**Chase *snaps and sits up* "So I guess your girlfriend's available now?"**

**Everyone else "Ooooo…."**

**Me *shakes head* "Ouch, that's terrible. Okay, hi readers! We're just… um… what would you call this?"**

**Windy *shrugs* "A question Game…?"**

**Me *also shrugs* "Works for me, anyways so thanks to the Ohama for reviewing: Strife, Amicus, raeweis, UnknownFollower (I got a nickname for you now… I was really bored in Geometry), Chaos, Rya, and Storm!**

**Strife= Yeah... FD... it's your fault.  
FD "I had nothing to do with the current situation..."  
Me "We all know that's a lie smart one. Go away. Anyways, haha now that you point it out, yeah Silver could've done that. And those are still some flipping awesome moments."  
Flame *flattens ears* "But later seems so far away..."**

**Rya= Lol gift from... lol! And yeah... I think there's almost nothing those emeralds can't do. At this rate they might as well use the emeralds to help out... uh... hey Katherine.  
Katherine "Not. A. Word."  
Me *scowls* "Anyways, no predictions? None? Well maybe you'll have some after this chapter." *laughs*  
Zap "Well it's worth a shot until I can get someone to build a new one."  
Sierra *eyes light up darkly* "Ah! This should be fun...!" *runs off with the camera while laughing to self*  
Katherine *stares* "She's... driving the car?"  
Flame "I call the trunk!"**

**Chaos= I did?! Yes! I always try to nail the personality of the reviewers when I write the disclaimers. I really do haha ^^ Anyways, go get that movie! I love that one it's my favorite one of the HP movie! That and the third one...  
Katherine "That's right!" *gives Chaos a high five*  
Zap *pales* "I'll try I'll try! I'm not superhuman, Chaos don't forget!"  
Katherine "Maybe you can make an OC like Indy just a thought though..."  
And no. That wasn't sappy at all. *laughs*  
Xsus *slowly turns around and squeaks in fear, lifts a hand and slices the monkey's head in half with a water whip before running for his dear life screaming* "XERIUS! HELP ME!"  
Xerius *appears out of thin air and gives Chaos a look*  
You started on a new crossover, nice. Did you finish your other stories though? Just wondering...**

**Raeweis= *laughs* I'm sorry! And yeah guys way to contribute.  
Zap "Well pardon me!"  
Windy *waves a hand* "Don't look at me, I was reading."  
Anyways, glad you're liking the story, I hope you continue to enjoy it when this chapter's done!**

**Amicus=Xsus *pokes back while giggling then takes the lightsaber and eyes grow to the size of dinner plates* "Oooo! What's this do...?" *Swings the saber in random directions*  
Me "Uh... you got a point there. I think the worst he can do at this rate is accidently cut one of our heads off..." *takes a step back* "Anyways, yes! We should all just go after FD somehow... wait... he's in the middle of Follower of Darkness territory... moving on... ahem, yes! I love this family too! Everyone here is awesomely friendly (including you!)."  
Zap "Heh, joykiller!"  
Katherine "And most near death experiences. We're winning Sierra!"  
Sierra "Humph, my moment's coming just you wait..."**

**Storm= I know! Katherine is by far the winner of the most 'almost gets killed daily'.*shakes head in disbelief* Amazing.  
Zap "Quite welcome."  
Katherine "So, now that Black Doom is out of here, who should we shoot next?"**

**UnknownFollower= *laughs* So the nickname I came up for you is UFO. Idk I might not keep it but I was sitting around in geometry (Almost as bored as that one time… anyways back to the story) and it just came to me. I sat up and snapped and my friend next to me was like "okay… you're weird…". Anyways, *looks at the shotgun*I like the idea of going after him with that thing. Sounds like he'll go out with a bang *laughs*. Ah so almost got you, huh? Hope I do better in this one! Either way, I get what you mean, I don't know half the movies people talk about or the actors. *sighs***

**DISCLAIMER= While I got your attention, I got a question for the Ohama, if you could be any kind of Mobian what would you be like I'd be a cat… you get the idea? Strife and Chaos don't have to answer. I already know you two would be hedgehogs. *laughs* Just add it in your reviews or PM it to me.  
Chaos "So… who's going to jump first?"  
Amicus "There is no way you're going to get me to jump off this cliff and expect to go paragliding."  
Rya *looks over the edge and looks at the group* "It might be fun… then we can go back to helping the others fix the fourth wall with my disclaimer on it still…! Sonic and co belong to SEGA, Dimension Jumpers are BlackSandHeart's, and Chaos belongs to… well… Chaos."  
Blackie *looks down next to Rya* "Oh my gosh… what was I thinking?! Which one of you guys talked me into tagging along?!"  
Chaos *lifts a hand with Strife as Strife starts laughing*  
Blackie "Now I remember…"  
UnknownFollower "This might not be such a bad idea… Rya's right. It might be fun."  
Storm "I'm with Amicus… this is… out there."  
Strife "Maybe if I push one of you off first…"  
Raeweis *pales* "Not me…! Don't push me off!"**

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN= DECISIONS

There was a long moment of silence as realization hit everyone in the room in shock. All of them looked to the ground, all furiously thinking of plan but all found nothing for a moment.

Tails suddenly jumped forward, "I have an idea!" Everyone looked to the kitsune in surprise as Tails smiled proudly. "What we could do is the same thing Professor Gerald did all these years ago, right? He helped Katherine stay alive last time and he had to have left some notes about it somewhere. We can just follow his notes and then move along from there!"

"If only Gerald was still here…" Maria whispered quietly as Chaos stood silently next to her. He cautiously wrapped his arm around the hedgehog and gave her a small hug as Maria lowered her head sadly.

Sierra then looked thoughtful. "Gerald… Gerald Robotnik?"

"Yeah that's him," Chaos said and he slowly shook his head after a moment. "Good man."

"Hmmm..." Sierra looked thoughtful for a moment then a dark grin appeared on her face. "I'll be back."

"Wait Sierra...!" Sonic took a step forward but the girl vanished in a flash of light and was gone from sight.

"Whatever she's planning... it's probably not a good thing." Windy said slowly, her eyes growing wide in fear.

Sonic frowned and looked at the spot Sierra was at seconds earlier. Where could she have gone...?

-XXXXXXXX-

"DOCTOR ROBOTNIK. A LIFEFORM HAS ISSUED ITSELF AS A THREAT." A tall robot, almost a single story tall, said robotically as it walked into the room. The thing was as white as snow and was about as thick as a redwood tree. It had multiple guns attached to its giant arms that were the size of half a bus, the long ways.

Doctor Robotnik, or more famously known to the fellow Mobians and humans in most dimensions as Doctor Eggman, pushed himself out from under a tall robot that looked just like the one he was now addressing. Oil was smeared on his work clothes: blue overalls and a white shirt along with brown boots that someone would wear in the army. Eggman stroked his oil stained mustache thoughtfully and started cleaning the wrench he carried in his hand with a cloth he carried in the other after a moment as he sat up. "Hmm... a threat you say? Who could it possibly be? It can't be that meddlesome hedgehog and his friends. All of them are far too busy with the Black Arms to bother me!"

"YES DOCTOR. HOWEVER, ITS ENERGY SOURCE IS BEING KEPT A SECRET. WE DO NOT KNOW WHO IT COULD BE." The robot stated in its monotone voice.

Eggman frowned. "Hmm... sounds dangerous. Send up Robo Amy up against it. She can handle this threat herself besides, I always wanted someone to attack the base so I could test her out. Prepare for battle, N1036! Things are going to get a little interesting around here."

"YES MY LORD." The robot known as N1036 hummed. It spun its upper body all the way around then slowly turned its lower body around and marched away. With each step, it made a _clang clang clang_ sound on the ground that made Eggman wonder if he could've made the robot out of a lighter metal.

Eggman pushed himself back under the robot he was working on and went back to work, thinking quietly to himself. Who could that threat be?

-XXXXXXXX-

Sierra smirked as she walked out into the open with the flat of her sword leaning on her shoulder. She marched her way through the sandy beach outside of Eggman's lair. She looked up at the tall building with hundreds of wires sticking out of it and the entire building leaning to its left, tempting to fall over at any given moment. Her eyes scaled to the top of it that looked similar to the top of a pumpkin but had a lightning rod and a large satellite on the top of it.

"Hmmm..." Sierra looked around the island that surrounded the base. It was small, maybe a mile or two long in all directions and was made of mostly sand and forest scenery. "What a strange place. But it doesn't matter. I have better things to do than this."

Sierra continued her walk towards the base when a low humming sound caught her attention. Sierra's ears twitched as she looked to the sky and saw a pink robot with rockets sticking out of its back drop to the ground. Sierra gripped her sword tightly as a robot that looked _exactly_ like Amy Rose dropped down but it was entirely made of metal instead of being a real hedgehog.

Sierra shrugged. _I've seen weirder._ She thought to herself with a smirk. She waved a hand at the robot. "Shoo, I got better things to do than to deal with weirdos like you."

"Request denied," Robotic Amy said in a robotic voice as the jets on her back went inside her back. Metal flaps covered the jets, making it impossible for anyone to tell that there were once jet packs inserted on her back. Robotic Amy got into a fighting stance. "You shall not pass."

Sierra sighed and started at the blue sky. "I do not have time for this...!"

The robot, in a flash of smoke, suddenly had a metal hammer in her hands. The robot stared silently at Sierra with cold red eyes that reminded Sierra of Metal Sonic for a moment. Sierra lifted her sword off her shoulder and lifted it defensively as her eyes narrowed.

Both of them stared at each other for a moment and then, without a word to the other, both charged at each other, lifting their weapons as they did so. As they got closer, Sierra suddenly smirked. "Sucker," She grinned darkly and then teleported past the robot and continued running for the base, leaving an expressionless Robotic Amy behind.

"Target confirmed. Sierra the Dimension Jumper." Robotic Amy said to, what seemed like no one, and then charged after Sierra as she got closer to the base.

From the sides of the building, guns and other large weapons appeared and opened fire on Sierra. She jumped out of the way skillfully and then made a huge leap towards the side of the building. She lifted her sword and stabbed it deep into the concrete like it was made of nothing but pudding before flipping up onto a nearby ledge, pulling her sword out of the concrete as she did so.

She landed without a sound on the other side and then quickly dodged to the right as a robot about her size blasted its machine guns at her. Sierra's eyes narrowed as she jumped around to avoid the bullets then used a blast of dark energy to blow the thing up.

With that, she ran towards a nearby blue door, threw it open, and then ran through it, leaving the door open behind her. Inside, she met white and metal hallways, looking somewhat similar to the ARK with automatic lights above her and everything shiny and bright all around. Sierra shook her head; this wasn't the time to investigate her surroundings. Where was Eggman? She needed to talk to him.

A quick look around and Sierra started running towards the left, noticing that the floor slowly curved upwards. She smirked as she remembered that most bad guys had their lairs on the top floor. Even Followers of Darkness followed that rule.

Sierra chuckled to herself as she took a sharp right and came face to face with about twenty robots similar to the one she fought outside before coming in. Sierra picked up her speed and then ran up alongside the wall then on the ceiling as all the robots could do nothing but stare as she easily avoided them all without slowing down.

The Follower of Darkness continued her run, easily running up the hallways as fast as she could run until an annoying voice called out to her on the communicator Sonic insisted for her to wear.

_"Sierra!" _The voice belonged to the fox known as Tails. _"What do you think you're doing?! Why are you going after Eggman?"_

_ "This has got to be by far, your dumbest plan yet."_ Zap added as Sierra glanced at her wrist and saw the image of the fox and the cat both looking downright annoyed.

Sierra growled to herself as she lifted her sword and sliced through a robot that got in her way before looking down at the communicator. "You have five seconds to give me a good reason to not turn this thing off on you." She said to them angrily.

_"Sierra...! You wouldn't dare...!"_ Zap started to say.

"Five... four... three... two... one... and..." Sierra was about to shut the off switch on the side of the communicator when she heard a voice that stopped her from doing the action cold.

_"Sierra! Stop."_ The voice belonged to Sonic.

"Oh great. What are you doing, Sonic?" Sierra grumbled, removing her hand from the off switch and focusing herself back to getting to Doctor Eggman, taking her eyes off the communicator.

_"I just want to know what you're doing. You can't just charge into something like this without a clear plan you know!" _Sonic said and Sierra could image the grin he gave her.

Sierra cracked a small smile she knew Sonic couldn't see. "Well, if you must know I'm going after the doctor to go get some information about Gerald Robotnik. If we can get information about him then Katherine can stay alive."

_"I thought you hated Katherine."_

_Shoot..._ Sierra thought to herself and she thought of something to say until an idea that was somewhat true came to her mind. _"_Well, you can say I owe her a favor since she saved my life during the Day of the Dead."

Sonic said nothing for a moment. _"Well... I suppose that's a good reason. Be careful Sierra! Eggman isn't known for willingly letting people into his base!"_

"I know, I know!" Sierra growled angrily and when she heard Sonic laugh she blinked in surprise. "What's so funny?"

Sonic laughed some more for a moment._ "Oh you're going to have to find out later. I'll keep an eye on things for you and help you out. Sonic out!"_

_ That was particular... _Sierra thought to herself with a frown then she shook the thought away. She reached an automatic door and when it opened up, she found herself in a tall, round circle room with the top not too far away and when she leaned over the edge of the nearby white railing she couldn't see the bottom. Sierra nodded to herself. _This is the generator room... this might be helpful to know someday in the future._

Sierra then turned and noticed a glass elevator similar to the one in Light Giver's square to her right and she smirked. Perfect.

She walked towards the door and pressed on the up button and waited for a moment until she heard the automatic door open behind her. Sierra spun around and saw none other than Robotic Amy charging at her full speed. Sierra eyes widened and subconsciously, she started slamming her fist against the up button.

Robotic Amy jumped forward and swung her metal mallet where it collided with the side of Sierra's face. The black cat flew across the room, over the black pit of the generator and crashed onto the other side of the round room, next to another glass elevator and behind another railing.

Sierra groaned and dropped her head to the ground after struggling to get up for a moment.

Robotic Amy made a strange whirling sound. "Mission completed. Stopped Sierra, the Dimension Jumper. Now to report my results to the doctor on the top floor."

Sierra's ears twitched as Robotic Amy moved towards the elevator and pressed on the up button that was almost smashed to pieces thanks to Sierra.

Sierra slowly opened her ice blue eyes and looked at her surroundings until her eyes landed on a large wire that was almost as thick as her fist. Another smirk slowly revealed itself on Sierra's face as she closed her eyes and used her tail to wrap around the wire. She carefully pulled it towards herself and then without much movement, reached out with her hand and grabbed the wire with a dark grin on her face.

Sadly, Robotic Amy didn't see Sierra suddenly jump to her feet, or jump on top of the railing, and then use the wire like a swinging rope to swing across the abyss below her.

However, the robot did see Sierra's boot smash into its face and smash it into the metal wall. The wall toppled down on top of Robotic Amy as Sierra landed silently on the ground and smirked at the remains of Robotic Amy. "I would've just teleported... but I just couldn't resist."

Sierra turned her attention towards the elevator as it opened with a soft _ding_ and stepped inside. She pressed the button with the Eggman logo on it and the doors silently closed and slowly lifted her up, playing by far the cheesiest elevator music known to the Followers of Darkness and Light Givers combined.

Sierra face palmed as she tried to ignore the lullaby tune it was playing. She gripped her sword tightly and looked at the glass ceiling until another _ding_ was heard and the doors opened up to a large, metal hallway, filled with a few robots, ones that looked exactly like N1036. They all turned to her in her direction as Sierra charged towards the closest one, slicing a smaller robot in half along the way.

As she got closer, the robot lifted its guns and turned to Sierra.

_"No Sierra!" _Sonic suddenly cried. _"Those robots are almost impossible to defeat! Even I have a hard time defeating them!"_

Sierra ignored him and continued charging, lifting her sword slowly with both hands as she got closer.

_"Sierra please! Don't do this!"_

The robot suddenly lifted a fist above its head, planning to smash Sierra into a pancake on the ground as Sierra got closer, then she suddenly teleported out of the way as the robot smashed a fist into the metal floor Sierra was at moments ago. Sierra looked at her communicator once behind the robot and glared at Sonic. "You're lucky you proved your point to me, Sonic."

Sonic let out a sigh of relief then showed her a grin, _"Just doing my job."_

Sierra rolled her eyes and started running forward again. She reached the metal door and kicked it open without a second thought. As the door fell over, she slid to a stop when she came face to face with a robotic army.

There had to be at least a hundreds of them on the top floor of Eggman's base. Eggman had a small screen with hundreds of buttons like the ARK to her left and to her right was what seemed to be a workshop of spare parts and gadgets. Eggman himself stood before her, now in his traditional red suit and black pants with his long, pointed shoes instead of his work clothes, but he still had oil stained on his mustache.

Sierra looked around at the robots, seeing many of them were the ones Sonic told her not to face and hundreds of other different ones. Eggman chuckled, "How nice of you to join us, Sierra, my dear! Now surrender now or my robots will blow you back into your home dimension!"

Sierra's eyes narrowed and she gripped her black sword tightly in her hand. After a quick look at it, she then tossed it forward where it slid on the ground, spinning and then stopped before Eggman's feet. Sierra lifted her hands behind her head and bent down. "Alright, you got me doctor. I, Sierra, the hero of Followers of Darkness surrender to your hands."

Eggman smirked. "Excellent..."

-XXXXXXX-

"What is she doing...?" Zap scowled as he squinted at Sonic's communicator. Sonic held it up and the others gathered around it nervously while Maria, Shadow, Chaos, Windy, and Silver were keeping a close eye on the still unconscious Katherine.

Chaos suddenly spun around. "Katherine's breathing is slowing down!"

Zap cursed and spun around before moving over to the small group. He sat down next to Windy and reached out a cautious hand, checking Katherine's pulse on her neck while the others turned their attention back to Sonic's communicator again.

_"How good it is to see you surrender Sierra!" _Eggman's voice said through the communicator. Everyone became quiet to listen to the doctor as he continued. _"What can possibly bring you to my lair?"_

Sierra let out a dark laugh as the view in the communicator slowly went back to her side and turned as she turned her wrist and it showed the group of the hundreds of robots and the doctor before her she was facing. _"Wouldn't you like to know?"_ Sierra chuckled. _"Well, if you must know, I need some information about Gerald."_

_ "What about my grandfather?" _Eggman inquired.

_"Humph, long story short: Katherine got zapped with some of Black Doom's DNA and she's dying because of unknown chemicals in her system. Is there a way I can fix that?"_ Sierra asked.

_ "I thought you hated Katherine."_

Sierra sighed like she couldn't believe she was hearing this and Sonic chuckled quietly to himself about Sierra's behavior. The black cat continued after a moment of silence. _"I'm paying her a favor."_

_"Well, that could be some of the reason but it's more than that, am I right, my dear?"_ Eggman chuckled.

Sierra made a growling sound in the back of her throat. _"There's no other reason."_

_ "It's because of Sonic isn't it?"_

_ "Who said anything about Sonic?"_

_ "I did, just now. Why are you being so defiant?"_

_ "Just answer my question and I'll consider answering yours!"_ Sierra growled, lifting the hand the communicator was on to make a fist, but everyone got motion sickness for a moment at the quick movement.

Eggman sighed as Sierra lowered her fist and showed the crew the doctor again. However, back with the crew, they were all staring at Sonic as his muzzle turned a light shade of red. Amy frowned. "What was that about, Sonic?"

"Oh nothing, I think Eggman's going to give us some clues!" Sonic said, laughing nervously and drawing the other's attention back to the communicator. Sonic let out a silent sigh of relief until Zap stood next to him again with his arms crossed.

_"So, unknown chemicals in her system?" _Eggman inquired, lifting a hand to his chin in the term of looking thoughtful. _"My grandfather never mentioned anything of the sort... however one thing that he used to fix most serious problems was with a Soul Emerald. If you work with Katherine's Soul Emerald then maybe... just maybe you can fix this. Besides, as Black Doom said: '__he who holds the emerald controls the owner'__, correct?"_

Sierra took a surprised step back. _"How did you...?"_

"_I have plenty of tricks and ideas cleverly hidden up my sleeve,"_ Eggman replied, interrupting Sierra while he was at it.

_"Humph, you used a robot didn't you? Predictable."_

"_I am anything _but_ predictable, Sierra!"_ Eggman said, however he sounded very annoyed by her comment though.

Sierra sighed. _"Sure, sure, okay, whatever. Now. If you excuse me... I think I should get going now..."_

_ "I think not. Your here and your now my prisoner. I could use you to my advantage..." _Eggman said darkly. _"Sonic has taken quite an interest in you for the last few weeks..."_

Sierra growled. _"I am _not _a toy! You can't just use me to do things you want to do so buzz off!"_

Sonic laughed now while the others gave him some weird looks but said nothing.

_"Sorry my dear, you are the one who surrendered after all!" _Eggman said. _"Now, my robots, get the girl and throw her in the cells!"_

The robots started walking forward and everyone could literally see the irritated look growing on Sierra's face. They all were able to hear her mutter to herself, _"If it's a fight you want. It's a fight your going to get, Egghead."_

Suddenly, the communicator shut off.

"What happened?!" Sonic yelped.

"Sierra's communicator must've turned itself off because of the low battery or she must've walked out of the communicator's range." Tails said with a frown. "I can try fixing it..."

"No time." Zap turned to Tails. "You heard Eggman. The best way to fix Katherine is by using her Soul Emerald... and besides... we don't have much time left."

Everyone stole the moment to glance back at Katherine as Windy rested a head on her chest, straining her ears to hear a faint heart beat that was slowly, but steadily, dying out. Chaos, Shadow, and Maria stood around her all looking worried and hopeless.

"What do you think we should do?" Tails asked, looking at Zap.

Zap's eyes narrowed and for a moment, everyone swore they saw lightning flash in them. "Tails, you're going to help me out on this one. It's time we messed around to see what a Soul Emerald is really capable of."

Tails paled. "Like... a surgery?!"

Zap nodded. "Yes, like a surgery."

"What about Sierra?" Sonic demanded, waving a hand at his blank communicator.

"She can handle herself," Zap growled, "If she can't then... oh well for her. She's a Follower Of Darkness. I don't really care for them, besides keeping an eye out for them is FD's job."

"Who is FD anyways?" Amy wondered aloud.

Zap said nothing as he moved up to Katherine, gently picked her up, and tossed her over his shoulder while picking up her Soul Emerald that seemed to appear out of thin air next to her a few minutes after Sierra left.

"I'll explain later," Windy nodded to Amy as Zap and Tails left the room and started heading towards the ARK's labs.

Everyone watched them go and Sonic took a deep breath. "Don't worry guys, if anyone can do it, it's them."

The others said nothing.

As soon as Zap and Tails were out of sight, Shadow gritted his teeth angrily. _So this is it,_ he thought to himself, _if they can't do this then Katherine's done for. She'll die if this doesn't work and I really will lose my sister._

**Quote for the Story: "A person, who no matter how desperate the situation, gives others hope, is a true leader." –Daisaku Ikeda**

**Zap *laughs* "Okay, okay, the best way to pick a fight?"**

**Flame *jumps to her feet and turns to Katherine* "We all know who the real master swordsman is here… and it's defiantly not you."**

**Katherine *jumps to her feet as well* "Is that a challenge?!"**

**Flame "Heh, you know it."**

**Me *sighs* "Again…? I just dealt with you two yesterday…! Anyways, you people know the drill, review tell me what you like, or weird things you noticed, etc. and I'll see you when the next chapter comes out! Adios!"**


	18. Patience

**Zap "So, you move the X over to the Y and then combine the two together, making a DNA trait that can be used against…"**

**Windy *leans over* "Do you know what he's saying?"**

**Me "Then maybe you can explain to me when he started speaking in English."**

**Windy *snickers***

**Me "Anyways, hi! Welcome to the next chapter… thanks goes to the Ohama for reviewing: Strife, Chaos, Rya, raeweis, UFO, Amicus, and Storm!**

**Strife= Sierra *turns to Katherine* "I propose we have a fight to the death to see which one of us **_**is**_** better."  
Katherine *sighs* "I don't want to get with a fight with you, ever. You'll cheat."  
Sierra *sounds offended* "I would never!"  
You actually played go fish with face cards?! Lol! With who? That sounds awesome I need to get my sisters to sit down and play it with me.  
And yes. There's another chapter *laughs* **

**Chaos= Thirty stories?! Dang! Nice job though, it's so true, I have those moments too when I'm like 'must write it...!'  
Zap *sighs and looks at Xerius* "I am so screwed if this idea with the Soul Emerald doesn't work."  
Xerius *looks at Zap and nods*  
Lol! Yeah, I was obviously motivated when I wrote down those things *laughs*. It's true though, we would trash Sierra if we had to and... who's doomed now?! Take that you...! *shakes fist into the air then sighs* You get my point.  
Eggman *chuckles*  
Sierra "Humph, you can laugh all you want Eggman but you haven't even touched me yet. How can we all know you have caught this cat? Besides, Chaos. I do not just let people 'catch me' for the fun of it."  
Oh, BTW I loved the quote, it made me laugh. It seems so true in this situation...**

**Rya= Zap *looks over* "I need another spoon! Chaos threw my spare one into the dimension traveler. It probably hit a poor soul in some other dimension."  
Windy *face palms* "You do not need another spoon!"  
Zap "Yes, yes I do."  
Yes! The other pudding wall, lol glad someone saw the reference there! The elevator music made me laugh hard when I was putting that in, the best way to irritate a Follower of Darkness: elevator music. Hmm, you gotta point there. CPR would've been brilliant to use in that situation *laughs*. Anyways, yeah Zap. We wouldn't dare say something like that to us.  
Zap *blinks*"Well pardon me! I have no care for Followers of Darkness!"  
Oh my gosh, an angry you vs. FD... *blinks slowly then laughs as I imagine it* Oooo, good job on the guesses! Some of them are true others... no. But it would be interesting if that happened...**

**Raeweis= Here you go another chapter! Hope this one is less suspenseful... ah who am I kidding? Yes. This one's suspenseful too. And glad I nailed you down on the disclaimer! I'm trying to do that so I don't seem like I'm turning all of you slowly into OCs... and that's just sad.**

**UFO= XD they call you an alien? That's flipping amazing. Oh and at the end of this chapter you might be cheering... can't tell you why though you're going to have to read it *laughs*. So, yeah Sierra isn't entirely evil I suppose... (if she head me say that...! *shakes head slowly*) and yeah. You've been waiting for a SierraxSonic scene for forever now! Thanks for always saying you'll always review it'll give me something to look forward to every time I upload!**

**Amicus= Xsus *stops swinging to poke you back then charges off with the lightsaber towards the door the OCs are behind*  
Me "Uhhh... anyways, yeah. If you have an evil lair... hide it in your basement. *laughs* Moving on, yeah Sonic just got busted! And Sierra got captured... or did she? Anyways, yeah Zap and Tails better do a good job. If they don't then I can name three people now who are going to go after him if she gets killed. *scowls then laughs again* Yeah, you and Chaos caught the LOTR quote that I put in there. That was funny.**

**Storm= Yeah, guess we were depending on Sonic.*snickers* Yes, poor Sonic. So many mixed up emotions.  
Sonic *face turns red* "I have no clue what you guys are talking about."  
Katherine *grins* "I'm in. I'd love to mess around with the idiots that brain washed me."**

**Disclaimer= Thanks for answering people so here's what I got from all of you: Chaos and Strife= hedgehogs, UFO= I'm making you a leopard. It seems to fit your personality better, Rya= you're going to be a Echidna. *nods head*I like that idea. It'll work for you. Raeweis= okay you're a fox since you like them! Amicus= Echidna it is *grins*! And Storm... I'm making you a fox as well just cause of Robyn from your stories. Thanks again for your help, you'll find out why I asked later! Anyways, onto the disclaimer!  
Chaos "STRIFE! Can you go faster?!"  
Strife *glances back as he spins the wheel of the boat in a full U-turn almost throwing Chaos, who's waterskiing, off in the process* "Are you sure you want to, Chaos?!"  
Chaos "Yes!"  
UFO "Alright! I'm next!"  
Rya "When he gets thrown off?!"  
UFO "Of course!"  
Raeweis *opens the large first-aid kit and jumps back as she sees its Xsus* "Xsus?! What are you doing in here?!"  
Xsus "I'm the first-aid kit!"  
Blackie *looks into the box with Rya, Storm, and Amicus as Strife drives faster and UFO watches Chaos* "How did you get in there?"  
Xsus *shrugs* "Chase told me to."  
Blackie *face palms* "And... you listened to him?"  
Amicus "Well... he **_**is**_** a hydrokenisis... I could see how he can be a good first aid kit."  
Storm "He's too cute to be in the box."  
Xsus *grins* "I got the disclaimer for you guys!"  
Blackie *shrugs* "Tell us then."  
Xsus *makes a guitar out of the ice cold water around him and starts singing* "Sonic and company belong to SEGA! BlackSandHeart owns us, the Dimension Jumpers, Chaosthehedgehog owns the hedgehog known as Chaos, and Strife the Dark 152...! Owns the idea for the flashback and the Englishman Terios!"  
Blackie *applauds with the others* "That was impressive."**

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN= PATIENCE

Sierra stole the moment to glance at her communicator and scowled when she saw that it said in blinking yellow letters: _"You are now out of range. Please try hooking up to the main system."_

Sierra rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to Eggman as he chuckled darkly. "So, my generator made your communicator backfire didn't it?"

The Follower of Darkness shook her head. "Heh, you never cease to surprise me!" Sierra said, wagging her finger and smirking. "But… it's time for me to depart."

"How can you possibly do that?" Eggman asked.

"Like this," With that, Sierra used her energy to shoot on top of the beams that held the ceiling together and crossed in every direction. Sierra balanced herself on the beam, her eyes glancing down towards her black sword as Eggman pointed up at her.

"Get her!" The doctor roared and all robots faced upwards and opened fire. Sierra let out a yelp as bullets ricocheted off the metal she was on and almost threw her off as they let out little sparks as they hit the metal.

The Follower of Darkness managed to do a cartwheel as it threw her forward and got back to her feet. She let out a sigh of relief then started running along the beams as robots turned slowly, trying to shoot her.

Sierra glanced down at a tall robot before her with the numbers and letters: N0136 below her. It was one of the robots Sonic had warned her about. To test his theory, Sierra shot a blast of black energy at it and blinked in surprise as the energy blast dissolved as it hit the robot, causing no effect.

"Do you like my robots? They're made of sulfur and other dangerous chemicals, made pacifically to stop anything that hits it." Eggman laughed as Sierra kept running.

An idea flashed through her mind as she turned towards another giant robot and jumped off the metal beam onto the head of the robot. She slid down the smooth metal onto the ground, did a summersault and ran forward as all the robots turned to shoot at her again.

She ran towards another tall robot and she clenched her fists as it turned and trained two large missiles at her. The robot fired and Sierra slid on the ground, baseball style, and slid right in between the legs of the robot as the missiles exploded behind her, dismantling some of the other nearby robots easily. She continued sliding and smashed right into Eggman as the doctor could do nothing but stare.

The doctor crashed hard onto the ground as Sierra reached out and grabbed her sword. She jumped to her feet and jumped out of the way as the robots fired at the ground before her. Eggman put his hands over his head and started crying out orders for them to stop, "Don't shoot me! Shoot her!" He wailed.

Sierra laughed quietly as she turned and ran once more, using her sword to slice at nearby robots behind her. Sierra ducked as another large missile was shot in her direction and instead, it blew up the glass window that was behind the robot army. The sound of glass shattering over the sound of robots, Eggman, and gunfire was heard.

Sierra dived for the ground and slid a few feet before slicing at another round of bullets before running towards the window. When she reached it, she slid to a stop, her black boots pushing glass over the edge towards the ground almost six hundred feet below.

The Follower of Darkness eyes widened as she glanced back to see the robots and an irritated Eggman, whose clothes were almost nothing but tatters now, turning to face her. Eggman pointed at her, his eyes glowing with rage behind his goggles. "FIRE!" He roared.

Sierra lifted her sword and frantically sliced at a bunch of robots. She actually hated falling, ever since that one day… Sierra shook the thought away as a missile flew at Sierra. She lifted her sword and blocked the attack, but the missile exploded on contact, releasing a huge explosion that knocked Sierra out over the edge and spinning towards the ground below.

Eggman jumped to the edge with a few of his robot minions and looked down to see Sierra still falling. Eggman started laughing as Sierra fell and hundreds of thoughts passed through her mind all at once.

_I cannot just let this happen…!_ Sierra thought while grinding her teeth together in frustration. _This needs to end. Besides, I've fallen off of taller objects and lived._

Sierra faced downward and opened the palm of her hand and with a bit of concentrated energy, a blast of black energy shot out of her hand onto the sandy ground. An explosion of sand shot into the air as Sierra's energy slowed her fall and then rocketed herself back up.

Eggman's laughter died short as Sierra sky rocketed past the broken window and onto the very top of the building. Eggman could only gape and point as the robots opened fire once more, since the building was slanted and Sierra was barely holding onto the edge of it.

_Come on!_ Sierra growled mentally to herself and pushed herself onto the top with the lightning rod and satellite dish, only to come face to face with a bunch more robots.

Sierra sighed in disbelief and looked at the ground to see if it was worthwhile falling again but shook her head. There was spare energy up here to be able to teleport and teleporting wasn't as easy for Followers of Darkness as it was for Light Givers. Maybe it was because when one teleported they transformed themselves into pure light to travel from place to place and last Sierra checked, Followers of Darkness were anything _but_ light.

The robots opened fire as Sierra spun around and made a desperate jump, grabbing onto the edge of the lightning rod before glancing back, smirking, and teleporting away as Doctor Eggman ran up onto the roof. When he saw that Sierra had escaped, he growled angrily to himself and smashed his foot on the ground hard enough to dent the metal.

"That thieving cat!" He raged to his robots.

If Sierra had heard him, she would've probably laughed.

-XXXXXXXX-

Windy, Chaos, Shadow, and Maria stood in the remains of the Stargazing room. Chaos, Shadow, and Maria sat in one of the five beanbag chairs while staring thoughtfully at the view of Earth since the ARK had spun back around to its normal position after the explosion.

Windy on the other hand kept her attention on the hundreds of paintings Katherine had drew over fifty years ago. Her green eyes scaled each picture with a thoughtful look on her face. Why did she draw all of this?

Twenty minutes that was how long ago Tails and Zap had left with Katherine to see if they could do something with her Soul Emerald to bring her back. The tension was almost unbearable for the four of them. Even Chaos wasn't making his usual jokes at the moment.

Windy frowned when she saw a sad picture of Chaos and noticed a small chao next to him. Windy glanced back. "Where's Nightshade, Chaos?"

Chaos glanced back and smiled sadly at the terrible drawing of himself. Shadow and Maria looked back too at the artwork as all four recognized Chaos' traveling companion. "My chao? Oh… she's been missing for years."

Windy frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Well…" Chaos coughed into a gloved hand nervously. "After I went to your dimension with Katherine when Shadow got taken by G.U.N., she was there with me if you guys remember correctly but when I went back to this dimension, when I arrived here she wasn't there with me."

Windy frowned and looked at the paintings again.

"Do you think she'll be okay?" Maria asked nervously. "This is worse than waiting for all of you to survive the fight against Terrarock during the Day of the Dead."

Shadow shook his head. "If I can survive a fall to the Earth then she can survive this just fine."

Maria lowered her eyes onto the dusty floor and lazily wrote everyone's name onto the floor that was in the room with her. As soon as she finished the door opened and everyone looked up hopefully but their eyes clouded again when they saw it was Team Chaotix.

"Hey guys," Vector said weakly, obviously trying not to think of the situation they were in.

"Hello," Shadow said, his eyes narrowing, "What are you doing here?"

"We're investigating the ARK!" Charmy said cheerfully. "Knuckles and some of the others are playing go fish with face cards. Xsus, Xerius, Rouge, Cream, and Cheese are in the training room! You should see Xsus and Xerius! They're having races to see who can swim faster!"

"Who's winning?" Windy asked, turning to the group and tearing her gaze away from the pictures.

"Xsus!" Charmy grinned. "Oh hey, Windy, you wouldn't mind if Xsus and I came to your dimension and went to an ice cream parlor would you?"

Windy paled at the thought and then decided they would get their ice cream on the Follower of Darkness' territory so they could do damage there. After a thought, Windy decided even that was a bad idea. She shook her head and waved a hand. "I'll have to think about it!"

Charmy grinned and spread his hands into the air. "Yes! You hear that, and you said she'd say no, Espio!"

Espio scowled. "I told you, it's a bad idea for both you and Xsus on a sugar rush."

Everyone laughed as Windy shook her head with a smile and left the room. No one noticed her leave as she walked down the hallways. She stopped when she came before giant metal doors and they opened automatically before her, revealing a training room. There were hundreds of things in this room, from a swimming pool, to a track, to a large room to her left that was surrounded in bulletproof glass and metal.

Windy walked towards the pool and stopped when she saw Xsus doing back flips on top of the water while Cream, Blaze, Silver, Amy, and Rouge sat on the edge of the pool and all the girls had their shoes off and feet in the cool water. Xerius was dripping wet not too far away but was calmly drying himself off with a blue towel.

Windy walked up and put a hand on her hip. "Hey people."

"Hey! Windy! Did you know they filtered out the pool so that means it's always filtering itself! It never stops filtering! It's like a never ending filter! Isn't that cool? So for the last fifty years this thing has been filtering itself out!" Xsus said excitedly.

Rouge sighed as she looked at Windy. "He's been doing this for the last twenty minutes."

Windy nodded as she glanced at Rouge. "I can see that."

Xsus did a hand stand on top of the water and managed to look at Windy as he did so. "Hey Windy! I can make a giant bubble out of water, you wanna see?"

"Maybe later, Xsus," Windy said and she sighed. "At least someone's taking it easy."

Cream smiled. "He's cheering all of us up!"

"Chao chao!" Cheese said.

Windy glanced over at Silver as he huddled in a corner not too far away from the others. He had a thoughtful look on his face mixed with sadness and his attention was fixed on a spot on the white wall before him.

"How's he doing?" Windy nodded in Silver's direction.

"He's been like this since Katherine passed out." Blaze said with a frown. "I hate seeing him like this, I tried to cheer him up but it seems like he can't hear any of us."

Windy sighed and waved a hand at them. "Well… I guess I'll see you guys later."

"Bye!" All of them, except Silver and Xerius, called as Windy walked out the door. As the door closed behind her and she looked forward she blinked in surprise as she was face to face with a dark colored chao.

After a moment of investigation, Windy rolled her green eyes. "Nightshade! You know Chaos is worried about you right, where have you been?"

"Chao chao!" The Chao chirped as it flew and rested on top of Windy's head.

"You got separated and have been on the ARK ever since, huh?" Windy raised an eyebrow as she started heading back to the Stargazing room. "Well, looks like things are going to get interesting for you, little Chao. Come on, let's go show you to Chaos. I'm sure he'll be thrilled to see you again. You've been missing for years."

"Chao!" Nightshade said with a grin on her face as she leaned forward and looked Windy in the eye.

"Yeah yeah," Windy sighed. "You're cute."

"Chao!"

-XXXXXXXX-

Sonic took a sharp turn around the corner and zoomed down the hallway at full speed before taking another sharp turn and then running up the metal stairs. The door was already open at the top of the stairs because he had taken this route already so he zoomed through it. He went up onto the sixth floor that had more spider webs and dust than any other floor he been on.

Suddenly, someone appeared in front of him and Sonic tried sliding to a stop but the metal floor wasn't very good for traction. Sonic crashed into the newcomer as they let out a surprised yelp and both of them rolled and slid a good hundred feet till Sonic found himself on top of Sierra.

Sierra's face turned red and she looked away as Sonic scrambled off of her, his face also red. "Uh… sorry… wait, Sierra!" Sonic blinked in surprise. "How did you get here?"

Sierra shrugged as she sat up, although her face was still red, but she quickly explained her side of the story and when she was done, Sonic nodded. "Well, it's good to have you back safe and sound."

"Safe and sound…" Sierra suddenly looked sad. "That reminds me of the good times… back when…"  
Sonic said nothing and waited for her to continue but Sierra caught herself rambling and her face turned redder. She quickly looked away from Sonic as the blue blur frowned. He put a hand on her shoulder and noticed how Sierra tensed up from his touch. "Hey… come on. You can tell me. That's what friend do, we tell each other things."

"And why would I be your friend? All my friends die." Sierra said dryly.

"Oh yeah? Well I'm not going anywhere anytime soon."

Sierra turned her blue gaze onto him and Sonic couldn't help but notice they looked less icy then they did when he first crashed into her.

Sonic continued after a moment. "Come on, we can work like a team! You know like with other people, not always by ourselves thinking we can handle things by ourselves. Even Shadow knows that he can't do things by himself…"

"I know how a team works, Sonic." Sierra said, looking annoyed.

"You… you do?"

Sierra sighed as she looked away once more. "Look… I'm going to have to explain something to you and it's going to be really hard for me to talk about it…"

"What are you going to do…?"

"Better yet, I'll show you," Sierra turned her attention to Sonic again. She grimaced, as if she was about to do something she was going to regret for the rest of her life.

"What… are you going to do?" Sonic repeated but this time he sounded more worried about the situation, causing Sierra to smile faintly.

"You're still cute, maybe this won't be as bad…" Sierra leaned forward and then suddenly kissed Sonic.

Sonic's eyes widened and a sudden light flashed through his eyes and he found himself in a faded out and dark world…

_FLASHBACK=_

_Sonic looked around and found himself in a dark alleyway. Standing next to him were three figures. Two of them were human and the third was a familiar black cat but a younger version of herself, maybe no more than nine or ten for all three of them. The black cat, or Sierra, looked back at the human girl. "Alright Flame, see the guy with the cane over there?"_

_ Flame sighed in disbelief, sounding bored as Sonic's eyes widened. He remembered Flame from his adventure back in the world of Darrius. Her brown hair had a golden mix to it as it got into her face she blew it out of the way stubbornly as her dark hazel eyes narrowed. She wore only blue jeans along with a black T-shirt on. "I see it, I see it!"_

_ Sierra smirked. "Good because I want you and Terios to get it for me."_

_ Flame frowned. "What for?"_

_ "Humph, so many questions. Just get the stupid cane." Sierra said._

_ "Not until you explain yourself."_

_ Sonic stood in the middle of the trio and waved his hand in Sierra's direction but the cat didn't even blink. He frowned as he began to realize that none of them could see the blue blur. Was this a memory?_

_ Sierra sighed. "I just want to see if you have the capability to get yourself a simple cane but since it doesn't look like you can…!"_

_ Flame narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms with a growl, "FINE. Come on, Terios."_

_ The human boy that stood next to Flame, and had a practically expressionless face, shrugged and followed Flame as the girl slowly sneaked her way out the alleyway and towards an old man hobbling forward on his cane. He had dark hair that was almost black and green eyes that brought Sonic the chills for some reason. He wore black pants along with a long-sleeved jacket that was black and blue with crystallized lines at the bottom of his jacket. _

_With a quick move, the boy named Terios conjured up a small emerald made out of crystal from nowhere and tossed it in front of the man. The old man's eyes lit up and he dropped the cane as he bent down and picked up the emerald._

_In a quick move, Flame jumped forward, grabbed the cane and ran back to Sierra with Terios right behind her, as this happened, the old man didn't even notice Flame's arrival or leave with his cane. "We got it." Terios said seriously as Flame handed the cane to Sierra, his voice sounded similar to someone Sonic knew… but couldn't put his finger on where he heard it before._

_ Sierra looked at the cane and handed it to Terios, "Well. Good job."_

_ "Oh come on!" Flame said angrily. "It was for nothing?!"_

_ Sierra waved a hand at Flame while speaking. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yell at me for this later, you hear?"_

_ "No, I can use it. I'm not exactly the strongest bodied and it does help." Terios insisted as he leaned on the cane like an Englishman, resulting in Flame smiling and Sierra sighing in disbelief._

_ "Well, as long as you're happy to have it…" Flame started to say but stopped as Sierra interrupted her, rolling her eyes as she spoke._

_ "And here she goes again. Alright! Let's go bother someone else for a change."_

_ "For a change?!" Flame demanded as she glared at Sierra._

_ Sierra ignored her as Terios waved a hand at Sierra to move forward. "As you say, lead."_

_ Sierra smirked as she stood up, it was a weird group. One cat with two humans, but Sonic couldn't complain and started following the group as Sierra led the way forward. Sierra glanced back at Flame as they walked. "At least he's obedient and doesn't argue with me."_

_ Flame scowled. "At least I argue so I can prove my points!"_

_ Terios chuckled to himself at their bickering and his laughter resulted in both Flame and Sierra stopping to stare at him with wide eyes. "Uh… he… laughed." Sierra said, blinking in disbelief._

_ Flame smiled at Terios. "It was a cute laugh!"_

_ Sierra glared at Flame. "So what? You're telling me my laughs aren't good?"_

_ Flame gave Sierra a look. "And explain to me why your laughs got involved in this conversation? Besides, all you do is an evil laugh."_

_ Terios frowned and tilted his head to the side as the two started bickering again. "What does cute mean?"_

_ "It means…" Flame started to say but stopped and looked at Sierra with a frown, "What do you think it means?"_

_ Sierra lifted her hands into the air. "Don't look at me! You said it!"_

_ Flame rolled her eyes and then frowned. "It's like… similar to attractive I suppose."_

_ Terios' frown grew deeper. "So… I'm attractive?"_

_ Flame blushed as she rubbed the back of her head, obviously embarrassed. "Um…"_

_ Sierra snickered at Flame's reaction, "To her, yes."_

_ Terios shrugged. "That's okay."_

_ Flame frowned then sighed. "Yeah… it's fine."_

_ Sierra rolled her eyes once again for what seemed to be the millionth time that day. "Yeah, yeah, how about we go to the technical engineering place? I bet they have some stuff there that we can mess around with."_

_ Flame now took her turn to roll her eyes. "Brilliant, maybe we can blow ourselves up while we're at it."_

Suddenly, the image dissolved and Sonic found himself still kissing Sierra. He closed his eyes as Sierra pulled away and shook her head with her muzzle as red as a tomato. "Sorry… it's the only way to send a memory image…"

Sonic blinked and smiled. "It… it's fine."

Sierra smiled weakly, the ice cold look in her eyes was gone for the moment. "Yeah… that day was a confusing day. Flame, Terios, and I went to the engineering center and we accidentally set off a few metal dragons that they were going to use against the Light Givers. We managed to blow up one of them and got away safe and sound but…" Sierra stopped and then looked sad.

"What happened?" Sonic asked, frowning at Sierra's behavior.

Sierra sighed. "Well, when we jumped off a dragon we were riding on to escape the factory, Terios went out of his way to save Flame while I crashed into the ground and almost broke every bone in my body. But either way, that's not important, I just wanted to prove to you I used to work as a team."

"Well, what happened to them?"

"Well, Terios disappeared after a Light Givers' raid, we all think he was killed and Flame was killed in another raid a month later, leaving me all by myself." Sierra muttered after a moment, she glanced over at Sonic. "But… don't you tell anyone, you hear me?"

Sonic laughed. "I won't, I won't!"

Sierra smiled and looked away. Sonic was going to ask another question but before he could get his courage up, a voice suddenly came down on the overhead com above their head. Sierra and Sonic both glanced upwards in surprise as Zap's voice came in, _"Will everyone please come to the test rooms? Thanks." Click._ And it was over.

Sonic stood. "Zap must've finished working on Katherine!"

"Oh she's still alive." Sierra said dryly.

"You only saved her because she was my friend didn't you?" Sonic turned to Sierra.

Sierra blushed again and then shook her head no. "N-not at all!"

Sonic chuckled to himself and held out a hand to her. "Come on, let's go see how Katherine's doing."

Sierra looked at his hand and cautiously took it and suddenly found herself being carried wedding style down the hallway at an unbelievable speed.

**Quote for the Story: "I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus on the brightest. I do not judge the universe." –Dalai Lama**

**Blackie *looks at Xsus* "Are you going to get out of the chest now?"**

**Xsus *frowns* "Is someone hurt?"**

**Raeweis *shakes head* "No not yet..."**

**UFO "CHAOS! WATCH OUT- ooooh...!"**

***Everyone looks back to see Chaos has fallen off and Xsus jumps out of the chest and lifts a finger.* "I'll save you water boy!" *jumps out of the moving boat as Strife slows down***

**Blackie "Um... okay. Anyways, you know the drill. Review and I'll see you when the next chapter... comes out. Oh! I've been meaning to say this for awhile now but if any of you are reading Strife the Dark's story, he posted up the next chapter... like a few days ago... but anyways, so if you were reading that go and read the next chapter 'cause it's up now! Anyways, thanks for reading and Light be with you all 'till we meet again!"**


	19. And Peace Came to All

**Blackie "I cannot believe you swam all the way back here on your own. That's… just amazing."**

**Chaos *shrugs* "I didn't want help from Xsus so I just swam back on my own."**

**Blackie *applauds while laughing***

**Strife *turns to UFO* "You ready?"**

**UFO *grins* "You bet!"**

**Rya *laughing* "I'll go after UnknownFollower!"**

**Storm *grins and jumps up and down excitedly* "I'm after Rya!"**

**Raeweis *shrugs* "Why not? I'm after Storm."**

**Amicus *looks at Xsus who's drying himself off with a towel* "So, you swam all the way out there and Chaos said he could handle himself?"**

**Xsus *nods and pokes Amicus for the fun of it while grinning.**

**Strife *looks at Blackie* "Are you going to try it?"**

**Blackie "Uh… sure… after raeweis. Anyways, hi readers and welcome to chapter nineteen! Thanks goes to my Ohama for reviewing…" *grins at the others* "who were: Strife, raeweis, Amicus, UFO, Chaos, Rya, and Storm!"**

**Storm= Lol! Zap "Sorry…! Good heavens… no one likes my lecturing."  
Katherine "You haven't heard him talk about biology yet…!"  
Haha yeah Sonic, all the facts point to you!  
Sonic *face is red* "N-no…! N-not true!"**

**Strife= *pats Terios on the head* There, there. Glad you liked the flashback though, it was fun to write again haha.  
Sierra *smirks* "I'm a Follower of Darkness! When do I **_**not**_** lie?"  
Yeah no cliffy chapter, haha, I think I tortured you all enough in the last few chapters. And yeah, now that you point it out the slide **_**was**_** very Sonic like…  
Keep up the fight? *laughs* I think I won it.**

**Rya= XD I want to tell you but **_**Katherine**_** over here…  
Katherine "No… you wouldn't dare!"  
Anyways, Idk it depends on the fight. If it was a real serious thing I'd get involved and back you up for sure! You can count on it!  
Zap *pales* "Yes madam."  
Sierra *snickers* "I am adored."  
Zap *turns and opens mouth to say something then shuts it after a quick glance at you*  
Lol, I would too! Well, it depends on how they fell off… if they crashed painfully then I would probably be like 'aw crap!', try to save them, and then… **_**maybe**_** if they're okay… laugh. Hmm… you have a point there! In '06 Eggman did try to just shoot them all out of the sky and if he'd kill Elise then… hang on then the Iblis would've released itself sooner I suppose…? Hmm… that's a weird thought then the game would've ended very differently.  
Yeah… even I'm not sure what Sierra would do if it came down to that. She's a full bread Follower of Darkness but she's starting to have a thing for Sonic so she'll end up being torn if something like that does happen… *grins suddenly* …story idea!  
Sierra "YOU BETTER RUN!"  
Sonic "You know you shouldn't have just scared her off…! Even if she was insulting both of us."  
Sierra *scowls and crosses arms* "I know, I know…!"  
Terios sounds like Xsus? Huh… weird thought… *laughs*  
Me "Pictures from the wall thing?! SWEET! We'll hang these up…" *laughs* "…in Zap's room."  
Zap *scowls as he plays around with his new spoon while Xsus and Charmy charge for the ice cream***

**Chaos= *blinks* That was really short haha.  
But, apparently you liked the SonicxSierra moment! Glad you did though, and I hope you're happy that Nightshade is in the story! *grins then laughs* Lots of the other members of the Ohama adored her by the way.**

**Amicus= Seriously?! I'm in bio too! And we're learning about the atom… *scowls*  
Xsus *stops at the door and backs away slowly then pokes you again while giggling* "I'm adorable!"  
Me "Yes. I have that problem with OCs… one too many times. Like Xsus here when I get on a sugar rush…" *shakes head slowly*  
Yes. IF you had an evil lair *laughs* And yes. We did manage to all fall off the cliff eventually… with some encouragement. Glad your liking this family though! I plan on putting up a forum sooner or later so we can switch story ideas and you all can really meet. But until I get around to posting it up… *sighs* well I'll let everyone know when I do. Anyways, your finger dancing moments are making me laugh to no end! But, glad to see you liked the Flame and mystery character and the SonicxSierra scene haha!  
*bows to the applause while laughing* Thank you! Thank you!  
Windy *frowns* "No… you did not return my book."**

**UFO=Yes! You should do it and I'll review if you put it up here eventually! Leopards, that reminds me, Xerius is sort of like a leopard. Lol, yes, Eggman would probably ruin it all. He has a habit of doing things like that. But for now, everything is happy for once and Katherine should be feeling better by the end of this… if all went well. Lol, loved the quote… I'm going to use it and you'll see when!**

**Raewies= I know... you didn't review but I just want to say thank you for all that you've done raeweis. I owe you one, really. Thanks again!**

**DISCLAIMER= Hi! Thank you everyone for all that you've done. You guys really kept me going. I wouldn't be here without you all. *gives everyone a hug* Thanks and here's something for all of you. I don't own SEGA. And I defiantly don't own the following seven characters.  
Sierra smirked as she sat on top of the building, looking down at the crew far below her. Her black cape flowed in the wind as she showed her smirk. "Who should I kill first? Or better yet! What if I just blow up your home planet first?"  
**"**You leave our home alone!" A dark hedgehog with blue stripes running through his quills known as Strife barked.  
Sierra shrugged innocently. "And what if I don't…?"  
"Then I'll blast your head off!" A yellow leopard with black spots, who was known to the rest of the group as UFO, jumped forward and glared up at the black cat.  
"And I'll help him with that, we all will!" Chaos, a red hedgehog with black stripes in his quills, agreed as he lifted a fist and the others nodded in agreement.  
Sierra lifted her head as she crossed her legs, looking uninterested in the group below. "You really think you can stop me?"  
"I **_**know**_** we can!" Amicus, a light colored Echidna, said proudly.  
Sierra laughed mockingly as soon as her laugh was finished she brushed some of her black fur that acted like hair out of the way of her icy blue eyes, "Such confidence for such a beginning level of a group! You do not stand a chance against my evil."  
Storm, a grey colored fox, laughed. "Well, you're not entirely bad Sierra. You did kiss Sonic in the chapter eighteen in the Return."  
Sierra glared at Storm while the others laughed. After a moment she sighed heavily, as if trying to resist strangling all of them in turn. "You might prove a point there, but that doesn't change the fact that all of you should die."  
****Rya turned to the others while trying to hide a grin on her face, she was a darker colored Echidna. "Quick! Someone go find Sonic!"  
****Her words resulted in more laughter and raeweis, a dark colored fox, showed a grin. "Maybe we should bring Shadow in this too, just to see them both knock you out of the sky."  
****Sierra growled angrily. "You are all getting on my nerves. What a pathetic little group."  
Blackie suddenly jumped forward and lifted her fist angrily, she was a dark colored cat that looked suspiciously similar to Flame the cat and she showed a confident grin. "We're not a group, we're family! And this is what family does. We stick together till the very end!"  
Sierra's eyes narrowed. "And the author reveals herself with the crew that backed her up all this way. Humph, I cannot wait to destroy you all." She stood up and flicked her wrist, revealing her midnight black sword as it appeared in her hands.  
**_**TO BE CONTINUED…**_

CHAPTER NINETEEN= AND PEACE CAME TO ALL

Silver the hedgehog could never recall running so fast down the corridors before. His feet literally seemed to float off the ground as he took sharp turns around the ARK with Blaze, Xsus, Xerius, Cream, and Amy running along behind him.

"Slow down, Silver!" Blaze called.

Silver ignored Blaze as he took another sharp turn and slid to a stop when he found three people standing in front of a metal door. One of the people looked back at him and their blue eyes lit up as they saw who it was.

"Silver!" Katherine cried excitedly, her eyes lit up as she ran forward and Silver could only sit there and gawk as she ran into his outstretched arms and hugged him tightly. Silver felt himself relaxing as he wrapped his arms around Katherine and returned the hug.

Although, the one thing Silver noticed was that Katherine still had black bur with red highlights in her hair. She wasn't back to her normal form that she had before this mess began. However, Silver was too happy to see her alive to care much about her new form.

Zap smiled faintly with Tails behind the group as the others that were in the training room with Silver stopped. From behind Zap, Team Chaotix, Shadow, Chaos, and Maria slid to a stop. From another hallway, Omega, Knuckles, Shade, Tikal, and the rest of the group slid to a stop down another hallway. Sonic and Sierra slid to a stop behind Shadow and the others and gently set Sierra down on the ground as Katherine let go of Silver, smiling faintly.

Chaos ran forward next and hugged Katherine while Shadow walked forward with Maria, making it a four way hug. The others soon gathered around and soon it was a large group hug with Sierra, Zap, and Windy not being involved in it at all.

Sierra smirked and looked away while Windy put a hand on Zap's shoulder. "Good job, Zappy."

Zap smiled and put a hand on Windy's. "Thank you."

Windy blinked in surprise at Zap's behavior but did nothing. But, she smiled as Xsus jumped up and down excitedly as everyone pulled away from the group hug. "You're okay! You're okay!" He chirped happily to Katherine, throwing her hands into the air.

Zap smiled. "Everything turned out fine, except I still don't understand the whole concept of Soul Emeralds, right Tails?"

Tails laughed weakly as he stood next to Sonic. "Yeah, there was so much in Katherine's Soul Emerald it even made _both_ of our heads spin! We just stayed to the basics and managed to reset Katherine's emerald so that it can keep her alive in this form as well, since it refused to go back to her last form."

"But..." Zap said warningly after a pause. "Anything could happen."

"What do you mean?" Silver asked nervously.

Zap shrugged. "We might've accidentally combined some things together that might make Katherine do some weird things... but other than that, yes it was a success."

Katherine laughed. "Well, even if weird things happen, Zap, it looks like we'll just have to go on another adventure to fix that mistake too!"

Zap rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the two tailed fox. "Tails, you did great."

Tails grinned. "Thanks Zap, but you did good too."

Windy rolled her eyes. "He probably made you do most of the work."

Zap scowled at Windy as he turned to face her. "I did not!"

"Sure," Windy said, smirking.

"Whatever," Zap threw his hands into the air. "Come on, let's get back down to Earth. We got to clean up the mess Black Doom and ah... Sangna left behind."

"Very funny, Zap." Katherine scowled.

Zap smirked and then pulled out Katherine's Soul Emerald and tossed it to her. Katherine caught it in surprise and looked up at Zap as he waved a hand. "Go ahead."

Katherine glanced at her brothers and all three put their hands on the Soul Emerald while smiling at each other. "Chaos Control!" The three of them called. Then, in a flash of light the entire group disappeared, leaving the ARK behind.

All that was left... was Sierra. The black cat looked sad and took a deep breath as she looked down the dark hallways until she pulled out a remote out of her pocket. "My lord," She dipped her head at the remote as a holographic image of none other than FD appeared, sitting on a leather couch with a large raven sitting on a coffee table next to him.

FD smirked. "Hello, Sierra," he said and Sierra shivered at his cold voice.

"Lord, your mission was a success. Katherine is keeping her new form and is still alive, just like you wanted it to be." Sierra said quietly.

"Very good, Sierra. Your mission is complete. Return back to HQ immediately," FD smirked and then the hologram faded, leaving Sierra alone on the ARK with a communicator in her hand.

Sierra's eyes softened and looked less of an icy blue as she tucked the remote back into her pocket. Sonic's voice rang out in her mind suddenly and it forced her to smile a small and real smile. "I'll come back... after I see... a new... friend."

Sierra looked up at the ceiling and disappeared in a flash of dark light.

-XXXXXXX-

_Two Weeks Later…_

"Haha!" Katherine cried as she flew through the narrow path along the ocean side. With the ocean to her right and a tall rocky mountain side to her left, she flew forward on an Extreme Gear Zap and Tails worked together to make for her. The wind flew through her black fur and hair and she closed her eyes for a moment, savoring the salty air brought to her nose.

She pushed the Extreme Gear faster and barely avoided a tall rock that was wearing down from the wind and water.

The ocean flowed next to her and occasionally, she saw a fish jump out of the water, for reasons unknown and she was too busy savoring the moment to care much.

This was almost as fun as riding a motorbike… almost.

Katherine laughed to herself as she flew above the sand underneath her, feeling free and happy for the first time in what felt like years. Suddenly, her watch beeped again and Katherine's happy moment vanished. She glared at the watch and saw it was another call from the commander.

Katherine took a deep breath and pressed the button, and put a hand to her ear, where a communicator wrapped around it. "Yes Sir?"

"Hello Kathy!" A familiar voice called and Katherine blinked in surprise.

"Silver? How did you find this number?!"

"Don't worry about that, so hey, do you ah… want to go see a movie or something together tonight?"

Katherine frowned, looking thoughtful for a moment. She shrugged after a moment. "Sure, why not?"

Katherine could practically see Silver grinning, "Great… thank you. See you tonight?"

"Sure! Outside G.U.N. HQ?"

"Where else?"

Katherine laughed. "Alright, later, Silver."

On the other end of the line she heard Silver laugh to himself. "Goodbye!" Then there was a moment of silence, "Nailed it! Oh wait, it's still on… sorry Katherine!" _click_.

Katherine rolled her eyes and laughed again. Then, she went back to enjoying her moment of freedom with the nightmare of Black Doom slowly fading away from her mind and everyone else's. She took a sharp turn around a corner of the sandy seaside and was gone from this adventure, leaving nothing but a bit of flying sand behind that her Extreme Gear kicked up.

THE END

**Quote for the Story: "I have full confidence in the capability of my writing. I just don't have the confidence that the story can keep up with my confidence." –BlackSandHeart**

**Oh… and got another one. "Family's like fudge— mostly sweet with a bit of nuts." –UnknownFollower**

**AHA! Take THAT! I finished the story, a story I had doubts in and a story that I considered ending a few times but TAKE **_**THAT**_**! I FINISHED! I, BlackSandHeart, have finished the hardest story of my career so far!**

**Windy "She's really happy about this one…"**

**Me "To an extent you cannot understand, Windy. Anyways, I want to thank my reviewing family (real names so people can get to look for you and respect you as much as I do): Raeweis {Canadian pal or Canucks fan}, Strife the Dark 152 {Strife}, Chaosthehedgheog {Chaos}, Amicus {Latin Friend}, UnknownFollower {UFO}, BlackStormNomad {Storm, Nomad, or TNP}, Maraya Prower {Bubble Gum buddy or Rya or just Maraya}.**

**Me (still) *puts on Xerius' cowboy hat and lifts Katherine's sword* "And now, I depart with the OCs. See you when the next story comes around, it should come on out tomorrow and it'll be called the Reclaim. Light be with you till we meet/read/review again! Thanks again *gives you a hug*!"**

**Katherine *lifts a finger* "That's mine…"**

**Xerius "….." *sighs***


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